Eien no Kuraito
by Chryo93
Summary: What would the Village Hidden in the Leaves if Naruto had a comrade who experienced the same life of loneliness. A line of insanity and adventure follows...
1. Eien no Kuraito

_**AN: This is not my first fanfic, but it is the only one I've uploaded thus far. This first chapter is an intro, but for gods' sakes don't skip it! You, as a reader, will be hopelessly confused if you do (Evil Laugh no Jutsu). Not really, but it does help. These events begin at the time of the Kyuubi attack. I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, they all belong to Kishimoto-san. Kuraito Eien and his abilities/techniques are mine. O tanoshimikudasai!**_

In the Land of Fire, many great clans have existed, the most well-known being the Uchiha, Senju, and Hyuuga clans. But one clan died off in a violent raid the night of the Kyuubi's attack on Konahagure. They did not live in the Village Hidden in the Leaves, but on the outskirts of the resident city of the Daimyo of the Land of Fire.

This clan was known as the Eien clan of Farseers. Their legendary kekkeigenkai, a doujutsu known as the Muraigan, allowed members of the clan to glimpse into the future. The things they saw could not be prevented immediately, as their short term memory could not hold the images in their minds. Instead, they would embed a subconscious "trigger" to allow them to real the "memory" and prevent disaster. Some members of the clan even prevented multiple assassination attempts but refused rewards to avoid attracting undue attention.

The night the Eien clan was killed was unusual. As most of the Farsight masters sought out ways to protect the Daimyo, assassins from an extremist group snuck into the compound. This group had made its own attempt on the Daimyo's life, but failed due to the interference of the Eien clan. These extremists had discovered the location of the clan's home and planned to kill them all. Their plan was executed flawlessly and would have succeeded if one clan guard hadn't been on watch.

His duty was to guard his wife and the doctors that were delivering his firstborn. This man was the head of the clan and a revered master of the sword. The child, a boy, was born with the clan's characteristic ice blue eyes, as well as his mother's clan's pale blonde hair. Unfortunately, his first sight in life was that of a sword erupting from his deliverer's chest.

The boy's father fought off the assassins as they tried to kill the last child of the clan. In his efforts, he killed all of the assassins, but was dealt a lethal blow. He made his way to his son and used his last breath to deliver the message of a father who wished to give his child a better life.

"Kuraito, my son, become a great man, defend the weak, save the people you love. Master your ability and honor our memory. I didn't want this for you; I never wanted any of this for you. I'm sorry, son." With that, the man died, leaving the last of the Eien alone and orphaned.

Were it not for a great twist of fate, the boy would have died there. But, as it was, a well-known sage was passing through and heard the screams of the newborn. He tracked the dead-awakening cacophony of screaming through the wreckage that was once the Eien clan compound. Upon reaching the source of the noise, he wondered at the shocking resemblance the child held to his old student. The only differences were both in his hair and eye color. Adding to the shock was the fact that upon the arrival of the sage, the boy's cries ceased, and he regarded this new man with his cold stare.

"Those are very odd eyes, and this is where the Eien clan is supposed to be…" Jiraiya of the Sannin muttered to himself. "It can't be…" Realization of the horrible truth hit the sage like a ton of bricks. He spotted a glint of silver under a piece of paper. The paper had the name "Kuraito" scrawled on its surface, and the silver came from the clan's symbol, a stylized "X" shaped like a tetra-bladed weapon of old.

"I guess the necklace and name are both yours, eh kid?" Jiraiya said to the now-sleeping child. At the same time, the last of the Uzumaki and Namikaze was sleeping in the arms of the Third Hokage.

Student and teacher sighed simultaneously from other sides of the land and said to no one in particular "This is going to be a challenge."


	2. Initiation of the Legends

_**AN: I will now skip to the Academy Days. Kuraito and Naruto have grown up together and are close friends. Both are despised as children that survived disaster under extremely rare circumstances. Now, on to the story!I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, they all belong to Kishimoto-san. Kuraito Eien and his abilities/techniques are mine.**_

Naruto leapt from yet another building, paint bucket in hand. He cackled maniacally, yelling "You'll never catch me, so just give up!"

Kuraito, on the other hand, was waiting beside a very irritated Iruka. He closed his eyes and shook his head at Naruto, who had just painted graffiti all over the Hokage faces. Where Naruto was loud, obnoxious, and dressed in "kill me now" orange, Kuraito was quiet, reserved, and dressed in subdued colors.

"You know this can only end badly for him, right, Kuraito?" Iruka said pointedly to the Farseer.

"Naruto's persistent and…" Kuraito stopped as his icy blue eyes glowed for a moment, and then he continued. "He's going to stop soon, sensei. I'll see you back at the Academy." Kuraito waved as he jumped away. He had to dodge two ninja who mistook him for Naruto on the way back.

Two minutes after he reached the Academy, Iruka followed Kuraito into the classroom with a tied-up Naruto in tow. Kuraito was seated next to Shikamaru, watching Naruto struggle against his bonds.

"Naruto, this is the fifth time you've skipped class, and graduation exams are coming up. Do you want to fail a 3rd time?" Iruka half-yelled at the restrained blonde.

"Humph!" Naruto huffed, looking away from everyone.

"Fine," Iruka said, an evil grin plastered across his face. "Because you missed the lesson, everyone will review the transformation jutsu."

Everyone but Kuraito groaned and berated Naruto. The Farseer just rolled his eyes until his trigger-flashed back to the moment when Naruto had perfected his own "anti-pervert" jutsu. As his mind returned to the present, Kuraito wiped away the small nosebleed that developed from the sight in the memory.

_ 'Oh, no,' _Kuraito thought as Naruto stepped up.

"Transform!" Naruto shouted, forming a hand seal.

At that moment, Kuraito covered his eyes as an older, female Naruto was revealed through the smoke of the transformation. Iruka stared, open-mouthed for a single second. He then fell backward, blood pouring from his nostrils.

Naruto changed back, pointing at Iruka and laughing. "Hahahaha! Got you! That was my Sexy Jutsu!"

"CUT THE STUPID TRICKS, DUMBASS! THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING!" Iruka yelled at Naruto.

After Naruto finished cleaning the Hokage faces, Iruka treated both blondes to their favorite food: Ichiraku ramen.

Kuraito was notorious for his extreme sense of taste, earning him a nickname fit for an Uchiha after three weeks of consuming his own concoction of peppers and spices capable of clearing a 50-yard radius of people from the area.

His "Dragon's Breath" Ramen was a recipe that Teuchi Ichiraku had to develop to wake a younger Kuraito up after a week of intense training that resulted in the Eien survivor collapsing in from of the ramen stand.

The resulting fumes the ramen exuded would cause most people's eyes to water, with the exception of Teuchi, Naruto, and Kuraito. Teuchi, however, had implemented a rule after the third time Kuraito ordered the fiery noodle broth.

"Kuraito, as you know, I only have one rule about your pepper-laden monstrosity. What was that rule?" Teuchi said with a sheepish smile.

Kuraito sighed. "The rule is…" He began.

Naruto and Kuraito simultaneously grinned and said, "Eat it on the roof."

Following their meal, Kuraito and Naruto bid their sensei goodbye. They walked to the semi-rundown apartment complex. The boys lived together in order to defend each other from the landlord, who continually tried to extort extra money from the two every once in a while. Despite this camaraderie, Kuraito needed his own space, but the landlord could exploit his absence and go after Naruto. In order to counteract this possibility, the blondes planned an "accidental" incident in which Kuraito was thrown through a wall leading into an adjacent apartment.

The landlord almost kicked them out right then, but before he could say a word, Kuraito had chimed in that the building could be condemned if the Hokage discovered that the walls gave way to something as small as a 12 year-old boy. The landlord relented and allowed Kuraito to "fix" the hole by putting in a doorway, making the apartment a duplex.

"Get some sleep, Naruto." Kuraito said.

"I know, we have the graduation exams to look forward to tomorrow." Naruto responded with a tired grin.

*Academy*

The graduation exams were the one thing everyone in Konoha looked forward to, especially if their own children were set to become shinobi. Naruto and Kuraito had taken the exam two times before; Naruto, because of his general ineptitude, and Kuraito, because of his laziness.

"Alright, everyone, the final exam will be on the Clone Jutsu." Iruka stated to the whole class.

'Hell, that's Naruto's worst jutsu…" Kuraito thought as he stepped up first. 'It's going to be a long day…'

After several hours of testing, Naruto and Kuraito were the only two students who didn't graduate. Mizuki pulled a forlorn Naruto aside, unbeknownst to Kuraito.

Later that evening, Naruto dragged Kuraito out of his early slumber, yammering about a way to pass the exams another way.

"What do you mean by 'Mizuki offered another chance to pass'?" Kuraito grumbled, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"Just that!"Naruto said excitedly. "Mizuki-sensei said that if we stole this one scroll from the Old Man's office and learned a jutsu from it, we would become ninja!"

'Mizuki…' Kuraito thought. He then spoke up. "If we take anything from ojii-san, we could be in very deep trouble if we get caught."

"We'll just say it was a prank." Naruto said, his grin fading a bit.

Kuraito sighed. "Fine, I'll help, but only to protect you, you little idiot." He regarded Naruto seriously. "You go down, I'm going with you."

After obtaining the scroll, Naruto and Kuraito made a mad dash for the forest sector in the residential district of Konoha. Kuraito set several traps to ensure that they wouldn't be followed easily.

Naruto opened the scroll when they reached the location Mizuki had designated and read the first jutsu out loud: "Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu" he groaned after this. "It had to be my worst jutsu, didn't it?"

"You wanted to get the scroll and risk our skins," Kuraito snapped. "Now quit complaining and let's get started."

In the time it took Iruka to find the two blondes, they had mastered only the first jutsu, but both were clearly exhausted and a bit beaten from their efforts. Mizuki then appeared, yelling at Naruto about the "truth about the Kyuubi". He then threw a massive shuriken, trying to kill Naruto. Iruka took Mizuki's giant shuriken in his back, yelling at both boys to run.

Kuraito and Naruto sprinted through the trees, hiding behind tow particularly large trunks. They watched as Mizuki and Iruka made another exchange of words, until Naruto rushed in, body slamming into Mizuki. Kuraito made ready to use the new jutsu he and Naruto had learned, but Naruto beat hi, to the chase.

An army of clones of both Naruto and Kuraito pummeled Mizuki senseless. Both boys stood next to each other, rubbing their heads sheepishly, grinning at a shocked Iruka.

"I guess we went a bit overboard, didn't we?" Naruto said.

"Nah, Mizuki's not bleeding too much." Kuraito said in response.

The following day, Kuraito and Naruto were recognized as official shinobi of Konohagure.


	3. Priming the War

_**AN: Yet another time skip. This is right around the time of the Chuunin Exams. Kuraito was never assigned to a team. Instead, I had him get assigned under Hayate. This chapter will be the major section for Kekkei Genkai awakening (Muraigan and Sharingan for respective users).I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, they all belong to Kishimoto-san. Kuraito Eien and his abilities/techniques are mine.**_

"Again!" Hayate shouted, followed by a series of coughs.

"Sensei," Kuraito said between strikes. "I swear you have chronic pneumonia or something." He delivered a fast series of powerful strikes. "Aren't you going to be a proctor for the upcoming exams?" He slashed at Hayate's legs.

Hayate jumped back, coughing again. "You know I can't discuss that," He said between hacks. "That aside, no one knows what's wrong with my lungs, it could be emphysema for all we know."

"Whatever, sensei." Kuraito said, rolling his eyes. "Your lungs are fucked up by any definition."

After an hour of exchanges like this, the two stopped, sweating profusely. Kuraito had originally objected to not being assigned to a three-man squad. When he was notified that he would be assigned to learn under the Special Jounin Hayate Gekkou, he was still less than pleased. Now, after a several month period of intense training, his body was toned like a warrior's.

As a result of this, many of the young women of the village that used to follow Sasuke now swooned over the sight of a very clueless Kuraito. Naruto's contagious inattention mixed with Kuraito's general ignorance of the world around him made for a very interesting combination.

One of these defectors was the only blonde female in Konoha, Ino Yamanaka, who was right then working her way through the crowd. Kuraito saw a flash of her platinum blonde hair and started to become nervous. Despite his general nonchalance regarding the young women pursuing him, the Eien heir was terrified of a girl know to him as the "Platinum-Haired Demoness" that appeared to not know the meaning of "no" when requesting a date.

"Uh, sensei…" Kuraito said nervously, looking toward the crowd and spotting Ino forcing her way towards Kuraito.

"Hmm?" Hayate tracked Kuraito's line of sight. "Oh, yes. You can leave now, Eien." He leaned forward and whispered, "Your seven o' clock mid is clear. I'd use clones if I were you."

"See ya, sensei." Kuraito said at normal volume, turning to face in the direction of his former seven o' clock perspective postion. He jumped away, sprinting across the rooftops at full speed. As he cleared the third set of buildings, Kuraito expanded his radius of awareness, using a technique he had derived from observing the capabilities of the Byakugan. He sensed Ino's chakra signature and trigger flashed:

'He was running and was caught by a trap two hundred meters ahead of his previous postion, consisting of ninja wire and paralysis seals. Ino had pulled the trip wire from a hidden crevice in a building nearby.'

As he returned to the present, he performed a Shadow Clone Justu, creating six copies of himself with even distribution of chakra. He smiled to himself as he heard Ino's exasperated scream and made his way to the Hokage's office to hide.

He slipped in through a window, waving silently to the Sandaime Hokage. He placed himself under the desk, pulling out a shadow clone pellet. As Ino crashed in through the door, he waited until she started talking.

"Come out from under there, Kuraito!" she screamed. "I know you're under that desk."

Kuraito was mentally screaming a prayer: 'Jooki no watashi wa inoru watashi o motomete kono fukushuu oni wa sugu ni akiru sa rete iru koto no shita ni aru subete no kami ni…' He used a concealment jutsu and yelled, "Wrong one!" He then slammed the pellet on the ground, causing a puff of chakra smoke to appear.

"Dammit!" Ino huffed, stalking out the same way she came. "I'll get him to go out with me one of these days…"

After a few minutes, Hiruzen Sarutobi looked under his desk and pulled the Eien boy out by his shirt, depositing Kuraito next to a window.

"There are far worse things to be afraid of than a fangirl, Kuraito." Sarutobi said, laughing lightly. "Angry women are by far the worse of this world's evils."

"Uh, ojii-san," Kuraito said, sweatdropping. "How do you know about that."

"Um, ahem. Move along, Kuraito..." Sarutobi said, looking away, blushing slightly.


	4. Rivalries and Revelations

_**AN: Moving right along, Kuraito still hasn't been informed of his kekkai genkai. Hayate is still going to be a proctor for the prelims. And... Eien has a new technique revealed in this chapter. I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, they all belong to Kishimoto-san. Kuraito Eien and his abilities/techniques are mine.**_

"Open up, Kuraito!." Naruto pleaded, banging on the bathroom door.

"Go use the other one!" Kuraito responded. "This one is going to be heavily fumigated after I get that poisonous milk you tricked me into drinking..."

"But we only have two, and you keep the one in your extension trapped..." Naruto said, a dejected look crossing his face.

"Either man up and face my morning gauntlet, or quit your bitching and wait!" Kuraito yelled through the door. "I'm almost done any *urghk*" There was the sound of vomiting from inside the bathroom. Kuraito stalked out, shirtless and looking more tired than Naruto thought possible.

"Bro, you don't look so good..." Naruto began before having to duck under a powerful kick Kuraito had aimed at his head. Kuraito's leg crashed into the wall, leaving a small hole and multiple lines of cracks.

Kuraito grinned evilly, his eyes shadowed. "Your retribution begins now, Uzumaki." He looked up, his eyes glowing with a maintained chakra surge. "You gave me spoiled food, against my warnings. I believed you when you said it was safe..." Kuraito's chakra became visible at that point, a dark blue laced with pure white, swirling like a vortex around the vengeful youth.

Naruto gulped nervously. "Uh, Eien-otouto, can't we discuss this peacefully?" He seemed to shrink to a miniscule size as he made full eye contact with the icy blue gates into Hell that were known as Kuraito's eyes.

"Nope." Kuraito pulsed his chakra and directed it toward Naruto, forcing him to relive the last two hours from Kuraito's viewpoint. _'Thank you, Anko-imouto.'_

As Naruto squirmed on the floor from the torture technique wracking his brain, Kuraito cooked breakfast. He prepared a very large bowl of ramen for his roommate, who was finally recovering from the genjutsu.

"Bastard..." Naruto groaned.

"What's that, baka?" Kuraito said, still preparing breakfast. "You want another trip under?"

Naruto paled and shook his head violently.

"Thought not. Now," Kuraito tossed a large bowl of still hot ramen onto the table. "Eat, before I change my mind." He sat down on the other side of the table, his own bowl in hand. "Don't those chuunin exams start today?"

"Yeah," Naruto said in between bites. "Kakashi-sensei said he was considering signing Team 7 up. What about you?"

"Hayate-sensei is a proctor, but he said that the ojii-san recommended that I be signed up." Kuraito finished his ramen and stretched. "I really don't want to, but I think Asuma-san is signing his genin squad up. I'm not getting upstaged by Shikamaru."

Naruto scratched his head in confusion. "How would Shikamaru show you up? He doesn't do _**anything**_."

"Be that as it may, Hayate-sensei is making me do it anyway." Kuraito tossed his bowl into the sink and started strapping on his gear. "Oh, and Naruto?"

"Yeah, Raito?" Naruto said, curious.

"I spiked your bowl, the bathroom should be cleared out by now." Kuraito began to laugh as Naruto sprinted for the bathroom. "We need to be there in six hours, I'll see you at the first test."

"I'm going to destroy you when this is done!" Naruto yelled from his kneeling position.

"Remind me why I agreed to this?" Kuraito said as Anko prodded the interrogation subject again.

"It was either this or buy me dango for a week..." The snake mistress grinned evilly as she prodded a particularly sensitive area on her victim. "Don't even try to deny that you're enjoying this as much as I am."

"Oi, watch where you put those needles." Kuraito pulled a single needle away from the victim's genitals. "I swear, if I wasn't here, you would have castrated this poor bastard several times over."

The captive Oto nin started screaming so loud that the Hokage came down to see what the ruckes was. Five minutes after the man's screams ahd begun, Kuraito was busy chasing Anko's snakes away from their captive.

"What is going on here?" The Sandaime walked in as Kuraito impaled another snake with a large curved knife. "And why is the Eien boy here, Anko?"

"Lost," Kuraito stabbed another snake. "Another bet," He drew a second, identical knife and beheaded two more snakes. "Against Anko-imouto."

"You should probably get to the first part of the exams, Kuraito" He waved the boy off. "And you, Anko, should start cleaning this place up." He stared at Anko until her eyes dropped and her snakes retreated.

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"Oh, and Anko?" Sarutobi said as he was walking out the door. "Don't kill too many of the candidates this year."

Kuraito wandered Konoha until he came across a recovered Naruto, who was playing with the Hokage's grandson, Konohamaru. He snuck up behind the oblivious blonde and grabbed him around the waist from behind. "Dead in seven ways, baka."

Naruto paled to a near white. "That wasn't very nice, Kuraito." He rubbed his midsection,

"Oh, quit complaining." He looked at Konohamaru, who looked like he was about to fall over from fear. "What's got you looking like Naruto when Teuchi-san closed Ichiraku's for a day." He grabbed Konohamaru's chin and examined him from head to toe. "You don't seem to be injured or damaged.

Konohamaru began screaming and ran. He continued to run intil he slammed into a person in black clothing. Konohamaru fell over and looked up at the person, who he identified as a Suna shinobi.

The Suna nin picked Konohamaru by the collar of his shirt. "Well, what do we have here? Some brat who doesn't know how to look where he's going. I think I'll teach him a lesson."

Kuraito rounded the corner as a blonde Suna kunoichi said "Put him down, Kankuro. We don't need to be causing trouble while we're here."

"Good idea," Kuraito said as he walked towards the Suna shinobi, his hands poised to draw his knives if need be. "Put the kid down."

"Do you have any idea who you're messing with?" The male Suna nin asked, still holding Konohamaru.

"Do I look like I care, Sand-maggot?" Kuraito scowled and looked up, revealing his icy blue eyes. He stared a the other shinobi coldly.

The Suna nin identified as Kankuro visibly paled and released Konohamaru. "Uh, listen, I didn't mean to cause any trouble. We'll just..."

"You coward." A voice from the tree above Kuraito said, a gravelly tone to it.

"Gaara..." the two Suna shinobi paled, both looking lethally frightened.

Naruto finally walked up behind Kuraito. "Is there a problem here? He held an equally cold expression as Kuraito.

"These three were just leaving." Kuraito said, moving Konohamaru to a safer position behind himself. "Either that, or they were about to give me a morning warm-up."

"Um, we'll just be leaving." The kunoichi said.

Kuraito walked in without greeting anyone. He sat down and propped his feet up on the able in front of him. He closed his eyes to slits, watching every person in the room until Naruto barged in. As soon as everyone in the room began disrecting their killer intent towards the hapless blonde, Kuraito released a wave of his own KI, causing several of the other candidates to pass out.

Despite the obvious fear that many of the other male ninja were displaying towards this newcomer who had the KI of a jounin, many of the kunoichi in the room were staring at Kuraito like his fangirls. Ino was in fact trying to push her way to Kuraito's table when the proctor walked in.

As Kuraito felt the presence of a jounin, he opened his eyes again to regard the new occupant of the room. Ibiki Morino stared at Kuraito with what appeared to be a lethal intensity that would put most other jounin into a babbling state of incoherence. Kuraito just waved and put his feet down like Ibiki was nothing more than a teacher at the Academy.

*Flashback*

"AAAAAaaaaggggh..." The subject of the latest interrogation screamed as Anko twisted some of his nerve endings with her chakra.

Kuraito was sitting off to the side, reading "The Art of War", occasionally glancing up to take note of how much blood was on the floor so that he could adjust his position accordingly. He turned the page and was about to begin a new chapter when he felt a paralyzing wave of killer intent roll into the room. He looked up to see a man with a large scar across his face and a bandana-style hitai-ite. The man looked at the Eien boy for a brief moment and looked away towards the prisoner just as quickly.

"Oi, nee-chan, I think your boss is here to take over." Kuraito said, returning to his book to finish the first section regarding enemy manipulation.

"Hey, kid." The man said in Kuraito's direction. "You Anko's follower or something?"

"Nope," Kuraito said, giving the scarred man a bored look. "I'm here to get some entertainment that doesn't involve watching my roommate take out twenty bowls of ramen in a single sitting. Plus," The man began to scream again. "The background noise is somewhat soothing when I get back to my book." He closed the volume, standing. "Why do you ask?"

The man smiled coldly at the prisoner but spoke to Kuraito. "Good," he said. "My name is Ibiki Morino, and I will be your guide into Hell this afternoon. You, boy, will be helping me get some rather important information out of our guest here."

"Will there be blood involved?" Kuraito asked, moving to leave.

"You scared of it or something?" Ibiki asked him.

"No, but last time Anko-nee-chan got carried away, I couldn't get my favorite shirt clean until I blasted it with bleach." Kuraito held out a section of his shirt for Ibiki to see. "This is the same shirt."

"Hahahaha!" Ibiki laughed with a bit of an insane air in the room. "I like you kid. Don't worry, my methods are much more physically clean and do a bit more damage to the mind."

Kuraito saluted Ibiki. "You had me at 'clean', sir." He stowed his book away.

*End Flashback*

As Ibiki explained the rules of the test, Kuraito thought of his experience after having first met the head of the Interrogation Corps. The man may have a lot of field experience, but Kuraito noticed that Ibiki Morino was predictable in his methods of turning a person's natural intincts to survive against themselves.

"The last question will be given in the last ten minutes of the exam." Ibiki finished. "Now, begin."

As the test progressed, Kuraito foiled multiple attempts that the other genin made to extract answers from his paper, as he threw senbon needles just next to the ears of the genin who were foolish enough to get caught.

The ten minute mark neared and Kuraito had already finished his test, while Naruto was nowhere near done: not one answer graced his paper. _'Now for Ibiki-san's little twist.'_

"Now for the final question. This question is different from the others in that you may choose to accept it or not." Ibiki said seriously.

"Who cares?" One genin piped up, standing. "Just give us the..."

"Sit down." Ibiki commanded. "This question is different because if you choose to not answer it, you may come back and take the exam again next year. However, if you choose to answer it and get it wrong, you will be barred from any following chuunin exams."

"What?" Almost everyone yelled simultaneously.

"That's not fair! There are people here who have taken the exams more than once and failed, but they came back."

"I wasn't the proctor at those exams. This year you just got unlucky." Ibiki made eye contact with Kuraito at that point, exchanging a knowing glance that lasted less than a fraction of a second.

Several of the genin around Kuraito stared incredulously at the unfazed Eien boy. He stretched and yawned as several people in the room raised their hands in surrender to Ibiki's ploy. Inside, Kuraito was cackling with glee at the sight of more than a dozen genin failing to see through the interrogation specialist's trick. Outside, he was as impassive and cold as the moment he walked into the room.

The stream of people exiting the room ceased after Naruto slammed his hand on the table in front of him, "You think that something like that is gonna scare me away? Well guess again. I'll take your question and I'll get it right!"

"And if you get it wrong, you'll be a genin forever." Ibiki said, looking a bit unnerved by Naruto's newfound courage.

"That doesn't matter! I'll still become Hokage!" Naruto yelled again, giving the rest of the room a surge of bravery to face Ibiki's final question.

Less than half of the original group was left as Ibiki made a final survey of the room. "That's it? Well then..." He paused. "You all pass."

Another chorus of disbelief resounded in the exam room as everyone attempted to process this new information. Kuraito was barely containing his mirth as Ibiki surveyed the room, taking in the shock of his latest victims.

The entertainment was cut short for the two pschology experts as the wall to Ibiki's right exploded. Through the hole, walked Anko, a psychotic grin plastered on her face that sent shivers down everyone's spine but Ibiki, who regarded the Snake Mistress and simply said, "You're early, Anko. You ruined the effect."


	5. The Snake Rears His Head

_** A.N. I know there will be a certain amount of backlash regarding Kuraito learning from Anko for any reason whatsoever. His family served as spies, though, so there will be a certain amount of intelligence training. There will not be an OC-Anko pairing. I'd rather not have nightmares about the writing that would take. (Anko= kinky, crazy snake lady. Not good working material for a novice writer.) Enjoying the lack of violence...? Yeah, me neither. This will be a rather messy chapter if I can put my ideas down without making too many "R-rated, 300-worthy" scenes of death and gore. Enjoy the silence, for it draws to a close. I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, they all belong to Kishimoto-san. Kuraito Eien and his abilities/techniques are mine.**_

After the initial shock, everyone in the room stared at Anko. Some of the closet pervs in the room had small nosebleeds, while the open pervs drooled. Those unaffected by Anko's typical skimpy outfit were scratching their heads in amazement.

"Alright, brats, I'm your next proctor, meet me at the fenced-off forest near the middle of the village tomorrow so we can begin the next test." Anko crashed out of the room, but not before Kuraito threw a senbon at her neck, loaded with slow paralysis poison that would take effect immediately. Anko fell over, growling and thinking up the new ways she would get back at whoever paralyzed her until Kuraito walked over to his secondary teacher and pulled the needle out, extracting the poison with it.

"Your move, psycho..." Kuraito said cheerfully as he walked away. The rest of the candidates were bursting with laughter until Anko stood and glared at them with murder in her eyes. They were silent for the rest of the day until late in the evening.

Everyone reported to the entrance to the Forest of Death, fear apparent in the eyes of those who had laughed at Kuraito's prank on Anko. Kuraito simply looked like he'd had a sleepless night.

"I hate our landlord..." He muttered to Naruto, who simply laughed at his friend's plight.

"That's what you get for tricking him into allowing our 'modification' of the apartment." Naruto said, clapping Kuraito on the shoulder. "Anyway, I think your crazy girlfriend is about to speak." He grunted as Kuraito jabbed a pressure point in his side.

Anko was, in fact examining the crowd for genin who suffered from Kuraito's same problem, but ignored her pupil until she saw him yawn. "A-hah! So, the great Eien does have a weakness!" She shunshin'd right before a very unimpressed Kuraito.

"Nani? I can't have the occasional sleepless night because of 'passing train' here?" He gestured towards his roommate, who had in fact been snoring quite loudly all night before the second part of the exam. "Anyway, nee-chan, do you have my special brew?"

Anko pulled out a packet with three blue pills in it. "Are you sure you want to use these? They have quite a bit more caffeine than your tea usually does." She looked genuinely concerned.

Kuraito snatched the packet, ripped it open, and dry-swallowed the pills. "I guess this experiment may end good or bad, depending on if I can filter the pills all day." He rubbed his head in pain. "Ugh, my head is poun..." He looked up suddenly, his eyes flashing with a chakra burst.

"Alright, now that we have that out of the way, I'll explain the test to you brats." Anko said with an evil grin. "Each team will be given one of two scrolls: Heaven or Earth." She held up one of each of the scrolls so the genin could see their objective. "Your task is to steal one of the opposite team's scrolls so that you have both a Heaven and Earth scroll."

One genin raised her hand. As she spoke, Kuraito tensed visibly at Ino's voice. "But how are we supposed to know who has which scroll?"

"You just have to get lucky, I guess." Anko replied.

Kuraito raised his hand. "I don't have any teammates, remember?"

"Ah, yes, you get a special test..." Anko whispered evilly.

'I don't like that look...' Kuraito thought nervously.

Kuraito sprinted away from the massive snake that was chasing him through the darkest part of the the forest. He slapped two paralysis seal trap on the trees behind him in an effort to subdue the serpent.

'Nee-chan, you evil bitch...' he thought as he pulled out his sword, charging raw chakra into the blade and causing the blade to glow visibly. "Bring it on, scale-ass!" He yelled at the snake, which at that moment charged at Kuraito.

Kuraito started pumping chakra to his arms and legs to prepare them for his new attack. He summoned three Shadow Clones and whispered, "Sen Ha no Mai: Kaishi."

Three seconds later, there was a massive area of destruction where the snake used to be. Kuraito was breathing heavily as he thought back on the creation of his technique.

_Flashback_

_ Hayate stabbed at Kuraito as the boy rushed at his sensei head-on. Kuraito nearly missed losing his ear as he dodged, but then submitted as his noticed the kunai poised for his throat._

_ "Kuraito *cough*, you need your own techniques if you intend to beat me. Something that will use that mysterious doujutsu of yours to a full effect." Hayate sat in obvious thought for a moment until he thought of something he figured Kuraito would go for. "How about an attack with Shadow Clones?"_

_ "Sensei, I don't see how Shadow Clones can help me at all." He swung his sword around absentmindedly in a loose, fluid form. His boredom then shifted to focusing on his movements. He started shifting from the flowing movements resembling water to more sudden, flashing movements similar to lightning, he shifted again to stronger strokes resembling earth and continued cycling through forms that resembled the five elements._

_ Hayate simply watched his student, examining the natural transitions between forms and had an idea. "Kuraito, I need you to try something for me."_

_ "What is it sensei?" Kuraito asked, still moving through his forms._

_ "Try pumping as much chakra into your blade as possible, then enhance your strength and speed by funneling chakra to your arms and legs..." Hayate spoke as he watched his student focus on his new task._

_ Kuraito immediately noticed that he was moving faster than before and his blade was glowing. He started thinking of how his movements could become even deadlier when his sensei summoned ten Shadow Clones, all with swords drawn. "Sensei, you're not going to..."_

_ "Prepare yourself, Kuraito." All of the clones said simultaneously._

_ "Craaaaap..." Kuraito unconsciously trigger-flashed to see where every single clone would go and moved to intercept the nearest one. His glowing sword flashed through the air as he mercilessly destroyed each clone with a cold efficiency befitting the icy look he held. Each clone attempted to move out of the way, but before they could, Kuraito was already in the way, poised to strike each killing blow. In twenty seconds, all ten clones were dispelled, and Kuraito was still ready to fight, but finally eased off the flow of chakra to his limb and blade and looked towards his sensei._

_ Hayate was obviously speechless and simply stared at Kuraito, who sheepishly walked toward his sensei._

_ "Did I do something wrong, Hayate-sensei?" Kuraito asked, worried._

_ "No, but I haven't seen or heard of that kind of swordsmanship except in legends of the warriors imbued with the spirit of the lightning gods..." Hayate thought for a moment. "You should think of a name for that attack, but I think it can go even farther, like the Eight Inner Gates that Gai and Lee use..."_

_ "Well, sensei, it felt like I had a thousand blades at my disposal. Maybe I could call it the Sen Ha no Mai (Dance of a Thousand Blades)?" Kuraito thought for a moment and spoke again. "And that could be the first part of it, so I'll call it Kaishi (Commencement)"_

_ "That first few seconds when you're charging your chakra needs a name, too." Hayate thought for a minute. "Well, your blade started glowing, so maybe call it Saisho no Hikari (First Light)?"_

_ "Do I have to name all of it?" Kuraito asked plaintively._

_ "Yes. Now, keep practicing." Hayate said._

_ End Flashback_

'And I haven't even finished it yet.' Kuraito thought as he continued to advance towards the central tower, on the lookout for more of the forest's less amiable inhabitants.

He continued to jump through the trees until he stopped next to a clearing where he saw the Suna ninja he'd confronted earlier in the week. He sat and watched as the red-haired one moved his hand through the air, seeming to direct the sand from his gourd to crush the unfortunate ninja they had just taken a scroll from.

'Merciless bastard, isn't he,' the Eien heir thought as he remembered his secondary objective: to steal at least one set of scrolls from a team with surplus, which the Suna shinobi clearly had. 'This should be fun...'

He jumped from the tree silently and approached the Suna group blatantly, making no attempts to hide his presence, but keeping his killer intent in check. The group turned around sharply as soon as they detected Kuraito, who was still approaching them with a leisurely pace.

"He he, I guess we get to take your scroll now, too, eh?" The Suna nin, who Kuraito identified as Kankuro from their earlier encounter, said with a smirk on his face.

"Let's not waste time with this punk again," the blonde kunoichi said, though she looked uneasy regarding Kuraito's presence. He looked at her as she spoke and when they made eye contact, she blushed and looked away. Kuraito filed away this information for later, after the preliminaries were finished.

He regarded the red-haired Suna nin last. The two simply stared at each other, gauging the potential threat level the other posed. Kuraito knew that the sand in his opponent's gourd wasn't ordinary. It exuded malevolence and rage, as well as the faint smell of death. There was also the pure lack of mercy hiding a deep-set exhaustion Kuraito knew only resulted from extreme sleep deprivation.

"I don't have any scrolls, but you appear to have a surplus." Kuraito walked towards Kankuro. "I"m going to need one set."

"You what?" Kankuro paused for a second, then burst out laughing.

Kuraito looked at the red-haired Suna nin and asked him, "What's your name?"

"Gaara no Sabaku," he replied.

"You don't mind if I hit this guy, do you?" He whispered so that only Gaara and Temari could hear him. "I promise to not do permanent damage, but he's being quite rude..."

The blonde sighed and Gaara nodded. Then they moved away from a still cackling Kankuro, who was oblivious to his imminent pain.

Kuraito stepped back, doing trajectory calculations in his head. He stopped about ten feet away from Kankuro, who now noticed the distance his teammates were giving him.

"Don't worry," Kuraito said as Kankuro looked at him. "The tower doesn't hurt that much." He pumped chakra to his legs and arms, then sprinted towards Kankuro at full speed for a split second, grabbed a Heaven and Earth scroll from his pack and yelled out his attack:

"_Mile of Screaming Pain_!" Kuraito round-housed Kankuro in the gut and sent him flying into the sky towards the central tower, screaming "FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!".

"He should land in a few minutes." Kuraito said as he walked past the blonde Suna nin. "And I never got your name, Miss...?"

"Temari no Sabaku," she replied, blushing.

"Well, Temari-san, I would like to take you out to dinner after our preliminaries are done," He pulled out a piece of paper and graphite and wrote down his address and that of Ichiraku. He gave this to Temari, causing her to blush even more. "Oh, and please wear something casual, I don't own anything nicer than these." He pulled at his shirt, which was still cover in the blood of the creatures he had killed earlier.

"We're opponents, though." Temari said with a surprised expression on her face along with an even deeper blush.

"I'm a gentleman and honestly couldn't care who I interact with." Kuraito said. He turned to Gaara. "You don't mind, do you?"

"I care little for your games with my sister. I just want to fight you to prove my worth in this world." Gaara said coldly.

"I'll take that as I would a gong-ho 'Yes!'" Kuraito said. He walked away, waving towards the group. "See you at the tower. I'll help your friend to the infirmary if I see him."

Kuraito was about a half mile from the tower when he sensed an unfamiliar presence. It resembled Anko's, but held a stronger sense of malevolence. He searched around the area, staying in a ready position when he felt someone approaching him from behind. He blasted chakra into his sword and slashed behind him. Kuraito saw a very pale man with long black hair jump away from him.

"Ah, so it _is_ true. The last of the Eien clan is a Leaf shinobi." The pale man looked at Kuraito with a hunger that bespoke a primal desire for unlimited power. Kuraito's mind flashed back to a section of the bingo book regarding S-Class criminals. One name in particular stood out in his mind as he recalled the description.

"Orochimaru..." Kuraito growled under his breath. His temper flared, causing his eyes to slowly start glowing. He pumped chakra to every part of his body, especially his eyes, preparing for the impending fight.

"I wish to see this legendary doujutsu in action," Orochimaru mused out loud. "But how to force it out of you..."

"Easy," Kuraito said, opening his circulatory system and chakra network fully. "I kick your ass, and I may use my trigger-flash to beat you into the dirt like the snake you are."

"You don't even know the full power of your own doujutsu? How pathetic..." Orochimaru's condescening tone sent Kuraito over the edge.

He drew both of his swords calmly, both blades pointing in opposite directions, resembling the Jyuuken style he had watched as Neji and Hinata practiced near his own training grounds. He blasted chakra into the blades and forced an extended trigger-flash, causing something in his eyes to shift. He could see the present now, but he saw every shadow of the future as it could happen at that moment. His swords started to glow as he started his new technique.

"Sen Ha no Mai: Saisho no Hikari"

"Ah, you studied kenjutsu, did you?" Orochimaru licked his lips in anticipation of what he thought would be a simple test of the Eien heir's abilities.

Kuraito's normally emotionless face shifted to a nearly-demonic scowl. He did not reply to Orochimaru. Instead he began his dance of death.

"Kaishi," Kuraito said as he smirked before dashing towards Orochimaru at blinding speeds.

Orochimaru immediately wen t on the defensive, barely able to keep up with the boy's onslaught. He immediately reassesed his situation and came to a simple conclusion: the boy was stronger than Orochimaru himself. His speed matched that of the legendary Fourth Hokage, his ferocity reminded the Snake Sannin of the old Tsuchikage, who even now was a lethal fighter capable of destruction unheard of to most of the know world.

Kuraito saw that his first level of attack was not breahing the Sannin's defense and decided to move it up a notch.

"Handan (Judgement)."


	6. A God Among Men

_**AN: I finally found the time outside of tech school to start writing again. A thousand apologies to those who have been waiting for the past several months, but I have enlisted in the US Air Force, after all. I'm now working on developing a schedule so that I may continue to advance this story as far as it will go. Regarding the story itself: I would like to see reviews at somepoint for this story, even if it's a bad one. But please, be specific on the content you do or do not like. I can't read minds, and even if I could, I wouldn't want the headache. Kuraito will not be some overpowered god among men, despite the chapter title, but his kekkai genkai is starting to fully awaken. He won't stop beating people for stupidity, like he has with Naruto and Kankuro, but it will become less and less vindictive and more of a daily habit resulting in minor mental and physical trauma, as opposed to his current standard of near-permanent harm (Launching Kankuro into a tower, lol). He will calm down, and his interactions with Shikamaru will entertain those of you who have ever watched Big Bang Theory. I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, they all belong to Kishimoto-san. Kuraito Eien and his abilities/techniques are mine.**_

__"Handan (Judgement)."

Kuraito's speed suddenly increased to more than double what he had been moving with as Orochimaru's eyes widened with surprise and fear as he detected the massive flair-up in the Eien's chakra output, rivaling that of a Hokage now. However, Kuraito knew this power would be short lived, as he had only recently mastered the second level of the Sen Ha No Mai technique.

Orochimaru's defense crumbled on the merciless assault Kuraito delivered in his open fury. The Snake Sannin was now afraid of the boy he was posed against, believing this assault to be a result of his kekkai genkai.

Kuraito now poured all of the rage he felt towards the man before him for experimenting on humans and placing his first curse mark on Anko, damning her to a life as a village pariah purely because she was the traitor's apprentice. Kuraito's eyes now stopped glowing blue and shifted to a pure white as his chakra went to full output. Kuraito finally landed a blow on the Sannin, slicing his right ear off in a flash of steel and fountaining blood.

Kuraito now gave into his more primal side, intending to frighten Orochimaru. He brought the now bloody sword to his mouth and licked the blood off the blade, staring at the Sannin the whole time.

"I can taste your fears, your regrets. I cannot, however, taste the slightest bit of innocence in your cursed blood. I'm going to kill you, Orochimaru, and I will do so with such glee that even Ibiki-san will think me insane for a time. I suggest you take this oppurtunity to run away and never return." Kuraito stared at the Sannin, his demonic grin shifting to a murderous glare. "If you don't, then there will be no more left of you than enough to fill a thimble." He lifted his swords to a crossed position in front of his torso. Then he triggered a genjutsu that took hold of the man's mind, causing the Snake Sannin to percieve Kuraito's voice differently.

Now, Orochimaru heard a demonic voice say, "Begone from this place, o bringer of death and pain. Begone, else your black soul shall be banished to the deepest recesses of Hell..." The fear that overtook Orochimaru caused him to lose control of his body as he senselessly fled from the percieved source of the voice.

Kuraito watched with satisfaction as Anko's former sensei ran like the coward Kuraito believed him to be. He didn't notice the pair of eyes watching him from the bushes as he made his way towards the center of the forest, finally spotting the tower. His pursuer made every effort to conceal their presence until Kuraito's eye's forced another trigger-flash, allowing him to notice that he was being followed. He continued uninterrupted, waving his vision off as a falsely percieved threat.

The two continued in this manner until Kuraito stopped and suddenly doubled back. Before his pursuer could move, Kuraito tackled her to the ground below.

"Now, why are you following me?" He demanded.

The girl beneath him was blushing beneath the mask she wore to hide her identity. "I was ordered by my sensei to track you down and follow you if he failed to capture you..." She looked away, allowing her headband to fall loose, revealing her hair to Kuraito's view. Her long hair fell back to the ground, a mass of pink locks that Kuraito recognized immediately.

"Sakura-san," He said, pulling his friend's teammate up and removing her mask. "You and the other girls should know by now that flirting and chasing won't..."

"I'm not here for that, idiot!" Sakura yelled, punching Kuraito in the back of the head.

Kuraito's face smashed into the ground. "Ow..." He picked himself up and brushed the dust off. "Then what was the purpose behind you following me for the past twenty minutes, eh?

"I, ah... um..." Sakura stammered, looking down at the ground.

"Spit it out." Kuraito said with an irritated expression. "I have to get to that central tower at some point."

"Sasuke's hurt and I need help..." Sakura said, looking at Kuraito. She was crying.

'Ah, shit... I need to help her now...' Kuraito looked away towards the tower then back at Sakura. "Okay, where is that damn Uchiha? Lead the way, Sakura-san."

Five minutes later, Sakura had led Kuraito to a clearing, where Naruto and Sasuke laid on the ground. Kuraito looked around, extending his search to any unusual wildlife or markings. He noticed a slight twitch in the bushes, but ignored it as he saw a squirrel run from the bush up a tree. He watched Sakura crouch down by Sasuke, who seemed to have a strange tattoo on his left shoulder consisting of three tomoe.

"Did he get that tattoo recently?" Kuraito asked.

"I don't think it's a tattoo, Kuraito..." Sakura looked worried as she checked Sasuke's basic vitals. "It appeared after that man Orochimaru bit him." She shuddered.

Kuraito's eyes flashed with chakra overload as he heard the Snake Sannin's name. "Did you just say 'Orochimaru', Sakura-san?" His killer intent was radiating uncontrollably.

"Y-yes, do you know who h-he is?" Sakura was now afraid of the open rage Kuraito was displaying, causing her to stammer uncontrollably.

"Yes..." Kuraito thought about the situation, then sensed a pair of eyes focused on his neck. He trigger-flashed.

_He saw two kunai fly towards himself and Sakura._

As his senses returned to the present, Kuraito pulled out one of his own knives and deflected both projectiles before his adversaries could even blink. He drew one of his swords and took up a defensive position with Sakura at his back.

"Very impressive, sneaking up on us like that." Kuraito called out. "However, I don't believe it will work again."

Three ninja jumped out from the nearby bushes, all with the symbol of a quarter note on their hitai-ate. "We expected you to turn tail and run. So why don't you save us the trouble of killing you and leave your scrolls now."

"Never!" Sakura screamed. "We worked hard for these scrolls."

"Hard work won't get you anywhere as a ninja. You need to kill, lie, and steal to succeed in this world." The female of the group said, pulling out several senbon.

"I beg to differ." Kuraito said, sheathing his sword and forming a tiger seal.

The woman looked at him and scoffed. "Why do you have such delusions?"

Kuraito started forming seals for a new jutsu. "Because, ma'am." He closed his eyes as he formed the last few seals. "Only hard work yields the fruits of extended research and study of jutsu structure." He formed the last rooster seal. "Ninpou: Kyouretsuna Genjitsu" His eyes snapped open, revealing his doujutsu's genjutsu form. His blue eyes were now pupilless, the icy blue interspersed with two broken circles, the inner one outlining where his pupil should be.

The second member of the trio grabbed his head, screaming. "Noooooo! My arms! I can't feel my arms!"

The female simply fell over from the genjutsu's images, groaning as she laid on the ground.

Finally, the third member, heavily bandaged and covered from head to toe looked at Kuraito and started running towards the Eien boy, exposing a large gauntlet device on his arm. As Kuraito moved to block the man's strike, he realized the purpose of the gauntlet and thought, '_Oh, fuck me..._'

As Kuraito blocked his adversary's strike, a blast of high frequency sound waves resounded from the inside of the gauntlet. He lost his balance as the bones in his ears were forced out of alignment. He couldn't even hear his own screams of pain as the damage to his ears finally registered with his brain.

Sakura was forced to her knees, but was nowhere near the level of incapacitation that Kuraito now suffered from. She stood and drew a kunai and snuck away, moving to flank the Sound ninja. She almost stepped on a branch as someone grabbed her from behind and pulled her back. Sakura spun around to face the person who now had hold of her collar. As she faced her assumed captor she caught sight of very faimiliar platinum blonde hair.

"Ino!" Sakura whispered angrily. "Don't do that to me!" She swatted her friend's hand away and turned to face the field where Kuraito lay.

The blonde was still curled up in a ball, writhing on the ground in obvious pain. He was holding his ears, which were now dripping blood. His eyes opened occasionally, but were quickly shut again, obvious signs of a debilitating migraine caused by the blast of sound to his ears.

"Kuraito-kun..." Ino said worriedly. Sakura looked at her, and the look of worry was genuine, not just that of a typical fangirl. For most of their time at the academy, Kuraito was thought of as invincible, strong, and mysterious. Now, in the face of his mortality, Ino and Sakura saw nothing more than a teammate who needed their help.

"Damn, is that Kuraito on the ground?" Shikamaru said, surprising Sakura with his presence. She almost jumped and gave away their position, but restrained herself. "We need to get him out of there... But how?"


	7. Breaking Down Walls

_**AN: I graduated tech school! I'm now a permanent party member of the US Air Force. Haters be warned, flaming of my choice to serve my country in the same tradition as at least six known generations before me will be met with immediate ignorance and/or beration via my next AN. In story news... Kuraito is a badass, yes. But, he does have extremely sensitive hearing, to those who will most likely read this later and be like 'WTF, Chryo, why does loud noise take Kuraito down in an instant?', but every badass must have an Achilles' Heel. I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, they all belong to Kishimoto-san. Kuraito Eien and his abilities/techniques are mine.**_

__"We need to get him out of there... But how?"

"We could distract that Oto nin and let Sakura-san get Naruto, Sasuke, and Kuraito out." Chouji said, while munching on his chips.

"And how do you propose we distract them, big guy?" Shikamaru said, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know, but we can't just leave them there..." Chouji said as he looked towards his friends , Naruto and Kuraito, who, along with Shikamaru and Kiba, were the only people that would even talk to the Akimichi boy while others made fun of his size.

__"Maybe we could put him in a position where I can get him with my Kagemane no Jutsu (Shadow Imitation Technique), but I wouldn't be able to hold him for long..." Shikamaru mused.

As the two boys discussed a potential plan, Ino and Sakura were sneaking away to flank the Oto nin. They moved to a position on the other side of the clearing, out of the immediate field of vision of their foe, who was now scanning the area for Sakura, unaware of the presence of the other Konoha genin.

Sakura made the first move, jumping out of the bushes to distract their opponent. She threw several kunai, which he dodged.

Meanwhile, Ino was performing the hand seals for her Mind Control technique when she saw Kuraito stop writhing and start to stand again. Ino stopped preparing her jutsu and watched in amazement as Kuraito stood, ears still bleeding.

Kuraito was exhausted, there was no doubt about that. He still had a splitting headache from the assault on his hearing that nearly killed him. While his vision cleared, Kuraito heard the sounds of bsattle near him and tried to flare his chakra in preparation, but stopped when his ears seared with pain in response.

Instead, Kuraito chose to draw his swords, crouching in a ready position as his vision finally cleared. He took stock of the situation and saw Sakura fighting against the Oto nin who had incapacitated him. The Eien boy's temper flared as he saw that the enemy ninja was merely toying with Sakura, dodging and evading her at every turn. He gritted his teeth and blasted a gargantuan amount of chakra to his arms and legs.

_'This is gonna hurt in a bit,'_ he thought as he crouched lower.

Kuraito sprinted towards the Oto nin and let his swords trail behind him.

"_Ken no Kage!_" He shouted as he slashed at his foe with invisible speed.

The Oto nin had no time to react as he was cleaved in two by the fury-driven attack from Kuraito. His midsection and lower body separated cleanly as he fell over. Blood sprayed onto the ground as the Oto nin's body hit the ground.

Kuraito sheathed his swords and released the flow of chakra to his limbs as soon as he sat down. As soon as he did, his legs flared with excruciating pain. He looked down to see that every single fiber of his legs' muscles were stretched to nearly breaking point. He started panting heavily, looking for anything to bite down on to in order to prevent the release of a deafening scream of pain he knew was coming. He resorted to putting the handle of a kunai in his mouth and bit down with enough force that the metal near his teeth started to crack.

Sakura ran towards Kuraito, a look of pure shock painted across her face as she realized how quickly Kuraito had just dispatched another ninja. She also took note of the muscular spasms his legs were still generating after his chakra flare.

"Kuraito!" She screamed. "Are you alright?" Sakura was openly worried about her friends's safety and health.

"Ow!" Kuraito yelled through the kunai in his teeth. He spit the weapon out. "Not anymore!" Kuraito pulled out what Sakura thought looked like a soldier pill, but realized it was too big for that.

"Kuraito-kun, what is..." Sakura began before Kuraito slammed the pill into his mouth and dry swallowed it whole. What happened next amazed Sakura to no end

Kuraito's ears immediately stopped bleeding and all the abrasions that used to cover his body were now healing at an amazing rate.

"Ugh, those pills are always nasty." Kuraito wiped his mouth in disgust. He saw Sakura staring at him still and spoke again. "Accelerator pill, engineered specifically for people like me, who assault their limbs with chakra flares regularly." He gestured toward his legs. "As you can see, my legs are no longer swollen and pulsing like they were before..." He winced as a twinge of pain lanced up his leg again.

"Where did you get that kind of medicine?" Sakura asked, amazed at the engineering that obviously went into the pill.

Kuraito stood once more. "I made it."

"You..." Sakura reapeated slowly. "Made it?"

Kuraito looked at her, one eyebrow raised. "You sound surprised, and not in a good way..."

"Yes, well... you see..." Sakura began.

Sasuke groaned and began to move. Sakura ruched to his side, blathering every variation of "Sasuke-kun" possible. Kuraito made his way towards the near-incoherent pink-haired kunoichi when he saw what appeared to be a seal glowing on Sasuke's shoulder.

"I'm assuming the snake gave that to you?" Kuraito said as glowing markings grew to cover half of his classmate's body. "It suits you, I suppose, being that you never did want your own kind of strength. You always depended on others to..." He was cut off as Sasuke rushed at him with no warning and open killing intent.

Kuraito blocked his rival's attack and looked at the Uchiha's eyes. In each was a single tomoe in the now red irises.

'_Fuuuuuuuuck me..._' Kuraito thought as he forced himself to channel more chakra to his eyes than ever before. He grabbed his head as he felt his ocular tenketsu expand to accomidate the influx of chakra. "GaaaaaAAAAAAAAHHHH!" He screamed as his eyes started channeling more chakra than ever. He tried to direct the flow away from his eyes until he saw exactly what his ability could do.

_*Extended Flash Forward*_

_ Kuraito stood in an open chamber, looking at Sasuke who was incapacitated with astounding pain from the seal Orochimaru had given him. His body morphed as two giant hands sprouted from the Uchiha's back, his Sharingan fully awoken, showing three tomoe. His face looked almost feminine, gray like a cadaver's and a black shuriken-shaped mark between his eyes._

_ A voice sounded from all around Kuraito. "I am the Watcher, voice of time. This is what the Uchiha will become. There is no stopping it unless you kill him here and now. But you will not. You will withhold yourself and let him live for your friend's sake and you will show this mercy until you must finally kill the last of the Uchiha clan's decievers, and end this useless war they have with the Senju." The voice paused, almost to let Kuraito absorb the information. "You will help your friend, the son of the village's savior, but you will not tell him of his heritage. You will learn from the last of the Senju and the Sage of the Toad Contract. You will surpass your ancestors, and you will avenge your father, though you know him not."_

_ The scene shifted to show what Kuraito thought was an unknown man, but he realized was himself, twenty years older. The world around him was changing swiftly, yet he remained the same, as did Naruto and two other people he could not detect before the scene shifted to the present. It showed Sasuke as he gripped Kuraito by the throat, the only two people capable of seeing the future preparing to destroy each other. The scene faded and he saw one last image: that of a man with spiky white hair and a notepad in his hands. "This is the Sage you will learn from first. Try to not damage him too greatly."_

_ *End Flash Forward*_

Kuraito forced Sasuke off of him. Drawing his swords, he poised one at the throat of the Uchiha. "Stand down, Sasuke-san. I don't want to fight you. I just want to get this damned test done."

"And I want to prove how strong I am..." Sasuke began before lunging at Kuraito. "By killing you!"


	8. Forging the New Path

_**AN: I love my job here. Best part of the military: my new wing-men got me drunk the first day I arrived at me new duty station. In story news: Kuraito and Sasuke have a slightly different rivalry from the latter and Naruto. Kuraito is precognitive to a degree that Sasuke can't match, but Sasuke can perceive the micro-adjustments of the chakra people make for jutsu and counter it. Not only that, but they both have lightning affinities. At some point I'll have to track down an artist who can do a drawing for me to properly render what Kuraito would look like, should he ever be thrown into a manga rendering of my standing clusterfuck. As it is for now, that is an invitation, just send me a message and I'll give you the full description if you so choose to accept the offer. Updates will be spotty at best until I get steady internet in my room on base. I don't like walking a quarter mile to the Starbucks on base just for internet and a frappucino. I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, they all belong to Kishimoto-san. Kuraito Eien and his abilities/techniques are mine.**_

__"By killing you!"

"**I think not, Uchiha.**" Kuraito said as his eyes turned completely white, identical to the Hyuuga. "**You will not win the fight you wish to start.**" Kuraito enhanced his words with controlled pulses of killer intent and pure chakra pouring out of his tenketsu. The ground around his feet began to crack from the pressure of his presence which brought the Kyuubi to everyone's mind as they saw this phenomenon.

"What are you? What is this power?" Sasuke was slowly backing up, afraid of this new ability Kuraito had developed.

"**A side effect of seeing a tragic future**" Kuraito replied simply, his voice still reverberating with power. "**I could kill you with a flick of my finger, as the Watcher wanted. But I will not, as he predicted, because you are Naruto's friend and I believe I can save you from yourself.**" Kuraito turned away and forced his chakra to recede. He then started to laugh nervously. "He he, the voice called that ability "_Hogo-sha._" Seems appropriate."

"Now I have you!" Sasuke yelled as he rushed towards Kuraito, kunai drawn.

"Nope." Kuraito said as he disappeared in a black cloud "Kage no Mai: Kaihi. Can't kill what you can't touch, Uchiha, just give up."

"I forgot to mention my protogé's other nickname the ANBU gave him before he left for the test." Anko said to Ibiki as they made their way toward another interrogation chamber.

"Hmm? And what was that?" Ibiki asked, interested in any name the ANBU would deign to label a genin with.

"Shadow Dancer."

"I say we end this charade, Uchiha." Kuraito said as he pulled out a kunai. "I'm not going to kill you, but I will kick your ass if I have to." His eyes started to glow.

"I like a challenge, Eien." Sasuke said with a slightly animalistic grin. "Show me what you can do!" He activated his Sharingan.

Unfortunately for Sasuke, Kuraito's training had been on a whole different level, to the point where he could wipe the floor with just about any other genin. The fight was over in twelve seconds as Kuraito's fighting was devoid of any emotion and wrought with a methodical, precise form of striking he developed under Anko's tutelage. Both of Sasuke's legs, his arms, and his entire chakra network were all useless as Kuraito stabbed several senbon into the primary pressure points of Sasuke's spinal column with surgical accuracy. He then tied Sasuke's arms behind his back and lifted the Uchiha up.

"Walk," Kuraito said as he removed the needle paralyzing Sasuke's legs. "Keep an eye on him, Sakura-san, I need to wake the idiot up." He walked over to the still unconscious Naruto and gave him a vitals once-over. "No bleeding, no broken bones, normal pulse..." He cranked back his right fist and pinpointed a spot in Naruto's side to jab and he started shaking the Jinchuuriki. "Naruto, wake up..." He kept shaking his friend and extended his first two fingers. "If you don't, I'm throwing out all the miso packs..."

Naruto sat up quickly and slowly turned to face Kuraito, who held a bored expression on his face. "You wouldn't..."

"Good, you're awake. Grab duck-ass over there and let's get moving." He gestured towards the still-bound Sasuke.

"Why is he..." Naruto began.

"I'll tell you after Kakashi gets hold of him. For now, I'm your team member replacement while he's under supervision." Kuraito explained, citing an extremely obscure rule he'd discovered in his boredom at the interrogation squad headquarters.

"I'm confused..." Naruto said as he and Sakura followed Kuraito through the forest to the center tower.

Two hours later, Kuraito and Team Seven emerged from the forest at the base of the tower. Kuraito held both sets of Heaven and Earth scrolls and proceeded to roll them out.

"What are you doing?" Sakura screamed.

"We're supposed to open them when we get here, yes?" Kuraito asked, irritated at the kunoichi's open fear of the unknown. He turned back to the scrolls. "These look almost like..." His eyes widened. "Back up, now!"

All of the genin jumped back as a blast of smoke revealed Iruka and Anko standing on either set of scrolls.

'_Ah, shit. It's her..._" Kuraito thought as his second instructor looked at him with an obviously evil grin.

"So you made it, gaki?" Anko said to Kuraito, ignoring the terrified ninja near her.

"Ha ha, Anko. Very funny." Kuraito said with an irritated look on his face. "Crazy bitch, you put me in the middle of the worst part of the forest deliberately, didn't you?"

"Have a little humor, Kuraito-chan," Anko said as she nibbled on some dango.

"Ahem..." Iruka said as the two continued to verbally assault one another.

Both brown and icy blue eyes focused on Iruka. One set was devoid of sanity, the other of mercy. Iruka looked away and simply walked towards Team Seven to congratulate their victory in the second part of the test.

"I love the way the fear just snaps into his eyes when he see me." Anko said, staring at Iruka. "It's so cute."

"You going soft on me, nee-chan?" Kuraito said, nudging Anko's ribs.

"Not a chance..." Anko said, looking away, blushing lightly.

"You..." Kuraito's eyes widened as he realized his instructor's predicament. He busted out laughing. "You like Iruka-sensei?" He whispered so the chuunin couldn't hear them.

"So what if I do?" Anko said, staring angrily at Kuraito, still blushing.

"This is fucking hilarious. I have blackmail until you finally ask him out." Kuraito stopped laughing and walked away, waving and grinning back at Anko, who was still blushing. "See ya later nee-chan."

Team Seven followed him, Sasuke still bound at the wrists and still in a very bad mood. Anko stared after them and didn't notice as Iruka moved to stand next to her.

"Uh, Anko-san is everything alright?" Iruka asked, startling Anko, who almost launched Iruka skyward.

"No, no. Everything's fine..." She looked away, blushing even more.

Kuraito finally tracked down Kakashi and wasn't surprised to see the jounin still reading his perverted book.

"The author of that shitty excuse for literature needs to be shot. Or hit with a Katon jutsu... or a Raiton jutsu... or all three... at once..." Kuraito said as he walked up.

"I'm assuming you're not just here to bash on the greatest writing in the world." Kakashi said, looking away from his book.

"No, closet perv. I'm actually here about your Uchiha prodigy who tried to kill me a few hours ago." Kuraito became serious at this point and grabbed the book from Kakashi's hand and marked the page before handing it back to the jounin. "This will require your full attention, because it's also a threat report.

Anko appeared behind Kuraito. "And this had to wait until now... why?"

Kuraito took a deep breath. "Orochimaru tried to recruit me on day one of the test. He seems to have attacked Team Seven within at least fifteen minutes of trying to subdue myself." Kuraito went on to explain everything he'd observed about the seal on Sasuke's shoulder, leaving out his own reaction to the threat, especially the words of the Watcher. He finished and left both jounin dumbfounded.

"How exactly did you counter Sasuke if you don't have anything like the Sharingan?" Kakashi asked. "You're certainly nowhere near as fast as Gai's student, Lee. He can move faster than the eyes can see already, but you move at only slightly higher than average speeds, just like Sasuke..."

"If you would shut up about other genin, and let me speak, I could answer your question." Kuraito snapped. After seeing that he would have no interruptions from Kakashi, he looked to Anko. "Should I even tell him?"

"He'll be bugging you about it until you do, just get it over with." Anko sighed as she spoke to her student.

"But he may already know..." Kuraito looked at Kakashi, who was obviously itching to use his own Sharingan to force the information out of Kuraito. "You move that headband even one millimeter, I will put you in a genjutsu so strong, even Kurenai won't be able to break it. Got it?" The confidence in Kuraito's voice brought out a fear so strong, Kakashi almost believed the boy was capable of his claim.

"Very well, but please tell me how you countered the Sharingan without an equally powerful doujutsu." Kakashi said, leaning forward with interest at Kuraito's impending answer.

"I'll tell you what I know, but only the important stuff." Kuraito began to relate the known details of his unnamed doujutsu. He finished with a question. "Kakashi-san, have you ever heard of a clan with the last name 'Eien'?"

Kakashi's eyes had been partially glazed over from inattention until Kuraito spoke his last name. "What was that name?"

"'Eien', you know, just like 'eternity'," Kuraito seemed irritated that the jounin had barely paid attention to his report. "You were in the village when I was brought here. So, tell me where I came from."

"I, uh, don't know what to say..." Kakashi said.

"How about some answers, then, scarecrow!" Kuraito yelled. "What do you know about my damn ability and is it like the Sharingan? Is it like the Byakugan? What the fuck is wrong with my eyes that lets me see the damn future?"

Kakashi sighed as he sat down. "This is a bit of a long story, but I guess you only want the important bits, right?" The look Kuraito gave him was a sufficient answer. "Yes, your ability is what we ninja call a 'kekkai genkai', an ability specific to only one bloodline. Thus, the name, 'bloodline limit.'" Kuraito seemed to have calmed down, but was still confused. "This is especially important to people like you, who have what is called a doujutsu. You, like Sasuke, have a kekkai genkai that manifests primarily in your eyes. Yours is rather obscure, even in the Land of Fire, where your family was last settled." Kakashi stopped to collect himself and recall everything he needed to tell the Eien boy.

"You appear to know more than you want to..." Kuraito observed quietly.

"Your doujutsu is known as the Muraigan, which roughly means 'eye of the future.' The Muraigan was known for delivering accurate visions of the future concerning the user. It was also capable of glimpsing into the past and rumored to even give the strongest users the ability to manipulate time itself." Kakashi seemed to be getting slightly excited at the mention of the more powerful abilities of Kuraito's ability. "I was privileged to watch one of the elite Farseer guards dispatch an entire platoon of Iwa ninja without being touched once by the enemy. He had eyes like yours..." Kakashi looked at Kuraito now.

"He was able to take down a fuckload of enemy ninja without a scratch, so what?" Kuraito seemed unimpressed.

"That's the beauty of it. He was like you." Kakashi continued. "He saw every single attack the instant before the battle began. Before the enemy had even thought of it themselves. He watched the battle as if he was going through it himself and simply countered attacks and dispatched enemies he had already fought in his own mind. It was the greatest form of combat I had ever seen. Even my team leader was impressed."

"So, he didn't just see the tiny details of the enemy's movement. He saw the whole battle before they even knew he was there?" Kuraito was interested at this point.

"Yes. According to this man, he had a vision of the battles for the next two weeks that he would be involved in, but he could only remember the battles as they came. He called it trigger-flashing."

The term Kuraito had been using was not original, then. "I... I don't know how to process all of this..."

"Well, you have another fight in a few minutes. You wanted answers, you delivered a report." Kakashi clapped Kuraito on the shoulder. "You deserve a little rest. Good work, Shadow Dancer"

Kuraito smirked. "Thanks, Copycat."

Hayate walked up to the assembled genin that had survived the second exam. He seemed surprised at the number assembled before him. After a series of coughs, which almost caused Kuraito to smack himself in the head in exasperation, Hayate finally spoke. "This is a rather large number of passing students for the second exam. So, in order to further filter out insufficient candidates, we will hold a preliminary set of matches before the third part of the chuunin exams."

Everyone but a few of the genin reacted with shock and outrage.

"Hayate-sensei, you are kidding, right?" Kuriato said as he took note of the collective reaction of the group.

"Unfortunately, no." Hayate said, ignoring the outrage again. "The chuunin exams are meant to be short. As such, we have to many of you who successfully completed the second test, so we need to cut down the number of candidates to accommodate our limited time span." He looked at his student. "By the way, Kuraito, you already passed after your 'special encounter.' You don't have to go through the preliminaries, but you will have to fight in the finals."

The genin were silent as they stared at the Eien with a mixture of awe and jealousy.

"Why does he not have to fight in the preliminaries?" Kiba demanded loudly, teeth bared.

"Put your fangs away, Inuzuka." Kuraito said calmly, regarding his classmate's demeanor with a mixture of interest and irritation. He turned to his instructor. "Sorry, but I'm gonna fight here, too. Sitting by and watching is lame."

"That wasn't..." Hayate began.

"End of story, sensei." Kuraito said as he glared right back at Kiba with determination in his eyes. "And I hope he's my first opponent..."

Hayate sighed in defeat. "I suppose there's no way to convince you otherwise, is there?" He turned the the rest of the genin gathered in the chamber and finished addressing them. "As I was saying, we will have a set of preliminary matches to determine who will move on the final part of the exams. The matches will be cycled randomly, but we will have to accommodate the addition of Kuraito in these fights." Hayate looked up at the board as the matches were cycled.

The genin looked up as well as the names were displayed.

**Naruto Uzumaki VS Kiba Inuzuka**

** Shino Aburame VS Ino Yamanaka**

** Temari VS Tenten**

** Shikamaru Nara VS Hinata Hyuuga**

** Kuraito Eien VS Sakura Haruno**

** Kankuro VS Chouji Akimichi**

** Gaara VS Rock Lee**

"Hmph, so none of the other villages besides our had people make it through?" Kuraito said.

"How troublesome..." Shikamaru said. "I have to fight a girl. I hate fighting girls..."

"Don't bitch, lazy-ass." Kuraito said as he swatted Shikamaru in the back of the head.

All the other genin were whispering amongst themselves as they wondered how their matches would go. Kuraito looked at the board in disappointment. 'I wanted to fight Lee...'

"Alright, we need to start the first match. Naruto Uzumaki and Kiba Inuzuka, stay here. Everyone else, you may watch from the walkway up there." Hayate sweatdropped as he saw Kuraito and Shikamaru lazily walking towards the stairs while everyone else jump up in a single bound.

As Kuraito and Shikamaru waited in the stands, they watched each match with unmatched analytical precision. Kuraito watched the tiny movements that would indicate where a feint was as opposed to the real movement, while Shikamaru watched the very beginning of the match and made bets with Kuraito as to what would happen next. The only time Kuraito had won the entire time was in the first match between Naruto and Kiba. Shikamaru had fail to account for Naruto's nearly limitless stamina and chakra, as well as his mastery of the Shadow Clone jutsu.

"Told you he had a plan you couldn't read..." Kuraito said as he held his hand out for the largest bet of the day. He also never told any of the other genin about his ability to see the future. As such, he refused to use it when gambling. It just took away the fun for him.

"Now for the fourth match. Shikamaru Nara versus Hinata Hyuuga." Hayate called out as Tenten was carried out on a stretcher.

'_Hmm, should I tell her?_' Kuraito thought as he watched the Hyuuga girl he'd been too afraid to talk to since the Academy. '_I mean, she actually talks to me like a human being, not just chase me like those damn fangirls. But..._' He stopped and thought for a second. '_She likes Naruto, though, and the baka likes Sakura-san, and Sakura-san likes me. This is fucking confusing..._'

Naruto and Sakura walked ove to Kuraito, seeing the focused expression on his face. He looked at them, his eyes having started to glow with his increased focus on his thoughts. "Yes, crazy ones?"

Both of the other genin stopped in their strack and looked at Kuraito nervously.

"Oh, sorry." Kuraito's eyes stopped glowing and returned to their normal icy blue.

"Were you thinking about Hinata again, Kuraito-nii-san?" Naruto said as he grinned at his friend.

"Uh..." Kuraito looked away as he blushed, still thinking about the Hyuuga heiress. He sighed in defeat. "Bastard..."

"Huh?" Sakura was bewildered at this sight. "I had no idea Kuraito-san liked Hinata. He never even looks at any of the girls from our class."

"He he. Kuraito tries to hide it, but he has a soft spot reserved only for Hinata." Naruto rested his hands behind his head. "Problem is, Kuraito is too intimidated by her father and her own status to even speak to her now." He gestured towards the fighting space. "He's probably gonna let loose now, since he managed to work his nerves up during the second test. Right, Kuraito?"

"I hate you so much, Uzumaki..." Kuraito said as he looked toward the fight that was now taking place.

"My work here is done." Naruto said cheerfully as he walked away to watch the fight next to Kakashi.

Kuraito watched as Hinata's determination seemed to waver, at which point, he did something that no one expected from anyone but Naruto.

"Hinata-chan! Kick that lazy bastard's ass! I know you can do it! He doesn't even know what you're capable of, so show him and your stuck-up clan what you can do!" He shouted, pumping his fist in the air.

Hinata was trying desperately to push away the thoughts of her father's voice. She still thought of all the criticism and times she failed to defeat her sister in combat. She looked at Shikamaru and saw how little he was actually putting into the fight. Then she heard shouting from the spectator walkway.

Kuraito was yelling at her. He'd been the only person to treat her as a friend, instead of a clan heir or classmate. He ate lunch with her every day when they grew up, complained of Naruto's prankster tendencies, and even showed no mercy to the other children who picked on her because of her clan's eyes.

This boy was her closest friend, and now she was disappointing him, too. But he wasn't criticizing her... He was cheering her on! Hinata's spirits lifted as she reactivated her Byakugan and took a fighting stance, facing Shikamaru again with renewed determination.

'_Kuraito-kun..._' Hinata thought as she looked at her friend one more time. '_I won't fail!_'

Kuraito blinked and saw an amazing spectacle before him. Hinata was now mercilessly pounding on Shikamaru, who was doing his best to avoid being struck by a single hit from the Jyuuken strikes Hinata continued to throw at him.

'_Did what I said bring this out?_' Kuraito thought as he stared in wonder at the fluid motions of destruction and damage Hinata wrought. "Damn..."

In thirty seconds, Shikamaru was laying paralyzed on the ground, most of his tenketsu sealed by Hinata's blindingly fast Jyuuken strikes.

"Victory, Hinata Hyuuga." Hayate said as Shikamaru was lifted and carried away.

"You owe me dinner when you get out of the hospital, jackass!" Shikamaru yelled.

"I won the bet, Nara. You're the one who owes me!" Kuraito yelled back as he jumped down to the fighting area. "And I want alcohol, dammit!"

"Sakura Haruno, please join us down here. Your opponent seems eager to begin." Hayate said with exasperation.


	9. Beginning to Grow

_**AN: Ugh, so many chapters without being able to update online... This will be number four in one month, but I'm still working on it. Fortunately, I still have everything up to the end of the Sasuke Retrieval Arc to work with, as I haven't read/watched any of the pre-time skip material after that. After the Retrieval Arc, I'm going to throw in a couple explanatory fillers and start the three years for Kuraito and his mastery of the Muraigan. Any suggestions when I finally post this will be very welcome. I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, they all belong to Kishimoto-san. Kuraito Eien and his abilities/techniques are mine.**_

__"Sakura Haruno, please join us down here. Your opponent seems eager to begin."

"But, but, but..." Sakura attempted to object as Kakashi gently moved her towards the fighting space. "It's Kuraito-san, I can't fight him..."

"Ah, but if you surrender, then you will have to go through this nonsense again..." Kuraito said, knowing exactly what to say to get Sakura fired up.

Sakura looked determined just then. "Well then, I'm gonna just have to try my best then, won't I?"

As soon as Hayate began the fight, Kuraito disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared behind Sakura. "I do apologize for this, Sakura-san, but I do need to see victory quickly." He brought his hand up in a knife-like position. "You should wake up in a few minutes." He closed all but his index and middle fingers and struck the pressure points just above the C-6, T-1, L-2, and L-5. Sakura collapsed in a heap as her nervous system went into shock and she passed out.

"Winner, Kuraito Eien." Hayate said.

"I'll carry her out and wake her up." Kuraito sadi as her walked over to Sakura, picked her up, and slung her over his shoulder, walking towards the medical room. The medical ninja on duty were moving towards Kuraito as he signaled them to move away.

"But she needs medical attention..." One of the med nin objected.

"Which you can give her when I reestablish the communication in her nervous system. But for now, back off, I need to get her to a treatment area." Kuraito held a focused look on his face as he stalked away with Sakura still over his shoulder.

__As Kuraito entered the med bay, the ninja treating the other combatants looked at him with confusion as he gently set Sakura down. He formed a series of hand seals and his fingertips started to glow.

"Ninpou: Shikei no Saikaseika." Kuraito could feel Sakura's arms and legs pulsing and twitching under his hands as the striated muscle reactivated and started to move themselves in recovery motions. She started to shift of her own accord until she sat up quickly and fell backwards again, groaning in pain. "Yeah, muscular slackening tends to do that to... Ack!" He stopped as Sakura grabbed his throat and pulled him down slowly.

"You... owe... me... a... date..." Sakura whispered as she passed out again from exhaustion.

Kuraito was numb for a few seconds as he processed Sakura's words. He passed out from shock, however he did so in an extremely comprimising position...

As Kuraito drifted back into conciousness, he contemplated how comfortable the pillow he was sleeping on was. He opened his eyes to see what it looked like and found himself instead staring at Sakura Haruno's chest. '_I'm either in heaven, or I'm about to go there when I die in a few seconds..._'

Sakura started to shift and in an unexpected move, shifted so that Kuraito's head was no longer resting on her chest, but right next to her own face.

'_Fuuuuuuuuck..._' Kuraito thought as Sakura started to sniggle towards him, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him closer. Then she started mumbling something incoherent and Kuraito listened more closely.

The only words he could clearly make out were a warm utterance of "Kuraito-kun..."

Kuraito's entire body stiffened as he realized his current situation. Sakura liked him, and not in the fangirl way. The girl had feelings for him.

Finally Sakura started to wake up. As her eyes opened, Kuraito trigger-flashed.

_Sakura was looking at him with affection in her eyes, her hand moving to carress his own, but he pulled away, looking to Hinata. She looked back and beckoned. Kuraito looked back to Sakura, seeing the affection of a sister, not a lover..._

Kuraito's mind returned to the present. '_Ugh, that was cryptic, but obvious at the same time._' He pulled away from Sakura, who stubbornly clung to Kuraito's neck. "Sakura-san, this is not an appropriate way for you to wake up..."

The kunoichi's eyes snapped open and she realized that Kuraito was doing his best to remain composed and immediately let him go. "Gomen, gomen, gomen, Kuraito-kun..." She was stammering and obviously freaking out when Kuraito placed his hand on her shoulder. She stopped and looked at him.

"It's fine, Sakura-san. Just please don't develop monstrous strength. I don't think my neck could take your grip after that..." Kuraito felt a shiver as he said this. '_Gods, I hope I didn't just call that..._'

Kuraito walked out to the fighting space, holding Sakura up while her muscles recovered. Kakashi looked back at his student and Hayate's supposed kenjutsu prodigy. '_He didn't draw his swords during the match, can he really use them like Hayate said?_' Kakashi turned back to the final projected match between Rock Lee and the Suna nin, Gaara. '_That kid from Suna has a cold look in his eyes. It reminds me of those who kill without thought or mercy..._'

"So, Lee-san is fighting now?" Kuraito said as he suddenly appeared on Kakashi's left, who almost jumped with surprise as Sakura appeared on his right, albeit not as suddenly as the Eien boy had done. "Damn, Kakashi-san you look like you were about to fly out of your pants just now." He turned to face the fight as well. "Lee's not gonna win this one, is he, Kakashi-san?"

"I looks that way." Kakashi said, returning his focus to the match, watching as Lee moved with blinding speed, still unable to penetrate the defense posed by the sand Gaara was somehow manipulating.

"I think that..." Kuraito began before sensing the blast of chakra from the fighting area, emanating from Lee, who was now in a focused position. "Is he..?"

"Opening the Celestial Gates." Gai said as he walked up behind the three. "Something he believed would be able to even beat you, Kuraito."

"I don't doubt it." Kuraito said, staring in wonder at his friend's increased speed. "I can barely keep track of him."

"How can you possibly be keeping track of him? You're a genin and not an Uchiha as far as I know..." Gai said as Kakashi thought the same thing.

Kuraito looked at Gai, showing the taijutsu master the pupilless blue visage of Kuraito's Muraigan. "It's a long story, Gai-sensei." He turned back to the fight, watching the shadows of Lee's movement and Gaara's attempted counterattacks. "I hate to say it, but if he doesn't go at least ten times that fast and double his strength, he won't be able to beat this Gaara guy."

"Gai, when did you teach Lee how to open the Celestial Gates? He's a genin, and couldn't possibly be ready for such strain on his body." Kakashi asked his long-time friend.

"The boy has just what it takes to succeed in just the way he wants..." Gai said, watching with pride, obviously ignoring Kuraito's earlier statement. "He has the determination to prove everyone wrong about the standards of the ninja world. He wants to be a great ninja with taijutsu alone. And he may just do it."

A resounding crack shattered the flow of the conversation, followed by Lee's screams of pain. His left arm and leg were engulfed in Gaara's sand, being mercilessly crushed. The sand released him, dropping him to the ground, his arm and leg uselessly splayed out next to him.

Hayate, Kuraito and Gai immediately jumped down between Gaara and Lee as the sand moved in motions to kill Lee while he was down. Kuraito left the immediate defense to the two jounin as he immobilized Lee's damaged limbs with kunai and ripped cloth from Lee's outfit. Kuraito also moved to prepare a litter when the medical ninja finally arrived. One nodded to the Eien as he left acknowledging Kuraito's work on the splints.

Now Kuraito's killer intent was being unleashed in the arena as he turned to face Gaara, who was still standing in the middle of the space, looking off in the direction that Lee was taken. Kuraito's voice was drenched with venom and fury as he spoke to Gaara. "You even think about it, Suna," Kuraito drew both of his swords and blasted chakra into them. "And that voice in your head will be the least of your worries." He stared through Gaara and straight at the evil presence inside the yound redheaded boy. '_You, I'll deal with when the time comes. Whatever you are..._'

Gaara looked away from Kuraito and walked away, jumping up to the platform, standing next to the rest of his team.

"Neji Hyuuga, please come down here." Hayate said.

"Uh, sensei..." Kuraito said nervously. "I'm not sure that's a good..." He stopped as Neji landed before him.

"You are right to fear the combat prowess of the Hyuuga clan, Eien. You, a clanless nobody would have no chance against..." He was cut off as Kuraito threw his swords to his sensei and bum-rushed Neji.

"Shutthefuckup!" Kuraito yelled as he launched a powerful axe kick down where Neji used to be. The concrete below his foot cracked and split in several places. "Take your self-centered nonsense and shove it up your ass!" Kuraito started forming hand seals that Hayate immediately recognized.

'_He wouldn't do that to another Konaha ninja... would he?_' Hayate thought nervously as he backed away a little further.

"Hey, stick-up-ass!" Kuraito yelled at Neji, who was fifty feet away from the Eien boy.

"I dislike your excessive use of profanity." Neji said simply as he focused on Kuraito, who returned the gaze coldly.

"This one's for your attitude and the verbal abuse you tried to spew." Kuraito finished the hand seals.

Kakashi, Asuma, Hayate, Gai, Kurenai, and the Third Hokage all looked at the last seal and thought simultaneously: '_I should duck._'

"Raiton: Shinkei no Bōju." Kuraito's hands crackled with electricity. He dashed forward and began to use strikes identical to those employed by the Jyuuken.

"You can't possibly know that style!" Neji was on the defensive for a few seconds until he activated his Byakugan.

Kuraito unconciously responded by activating his Muraigan's first level. He observed Neji's reaction. "What was that about clanless?" He pumped more chakra to his hands and proceeded to bombard Neji with a flurry of strikes, intent on disabling the Hyuuga quickly. Unfortunately for Kuraito, Neji was just as fast, if not faster than, himself.

"You cannot win against me. I have trained to become one of the elite ninja of this village." Neji said as he struck the first blow, sealing one of Kuraito's tenketsu.

"Ow." Kuraito said with little inflection in his voice. He brought up the hand opposite the sealed point, pumped chakra into it and struck his tenketsu a second time, unsealing it. "That wasn't very nice, Neji-san." Kuraito said, a manic grin starting to creep across his face.

"How can you do these things?" Neji was becoming very irritated. "You smile and joke in the face of a superior opponent?"

"I have a few nicknames in the village: Winter Glare, Ice, Cold Fury, and dozens more..." Kuraito said, still grinning. "But I have one in particular that only Konoha jounin know."

"So what?" Neji said, preparing to attack.

"The one that only the jounin of the village know is rather special." Kuraito continued. "And you would do well to remember it."

"No matter how many titles you claim, it will not change the fact that fate has dictated that my clan will always be the greatest in our village." Neji scoffed at Kuraito's confidence.

"My greatest nickname, granted by the ANBU squads themselves," Kuraito said, pulling out a kunai. He disappeared and reappeared behind Neji. "Is 'Shadow Dancer.' I am the Shadow of Death, can you keep up with that, Hyuuga?" He brought the kunai up to Neji's throat, before noticing Neji's body tensing for some unknown attack. '_Oh, fuck me._'

"Hakkeshō Kaiten" Neji started spinning around at incredible speed, chakra pouring from his tenketsu. A dome of whirling chakra formed as Kuraito jumped back. As Neji stopped, he looked up at Kuraito, smirking. "You cannot penetrate my defense, Eien. My Byakugan sees everything."

Kuraito regarded Neji for a few seconds, then grinned again.

"And what is just so funny, if I may ask?" Neji demanded.

"Can you also see," Kuraito began before disappearing with a sadistic gleam in his eye, only to reappear behind Neji. "My boot up your ass!" He kicked Neji right in the space just below his tailbone, launching the Hyuuga prodigy into the ceiling. "I win, jackass!" He yelled up to Neji, who was clinging to the ceiling for his own safety. Kuraito walked off, waving to everyone else. "See you all in a month. Except..." He looked around. "Temari-san! Where are you?"

'_He mericlessly beats Neji into a babbling mess, then immediately starts looking for a girl he only just met?_" Kakashi thought.

Hayate just shook his head ruefully as Kuraito grabbed Temari by the hand and took her away to wherever he had planned.


	10. The Early Years

_**AN: Due to a very good point made by **__**Harmless Romantic, I will be integrating the backstory sections for Kuraito and Naruto's relationship, as well as the other assorted info I came up with and couldn't properly integrate. I'm going to put this to a vote, however: Should Kuraito hook up with Temari, Hinata, Ino, or other choices. Send your preference via review. My review count is a bit pathetic right now... (5 reviews total for the whole story... You guys can do better). If anyone was offended by Neji getting a literal boot up his ass, then I do apologize, but it fit Kuraito's current personality: severe, dangerous, and random mood swings coupled with sadism he picked up from Anko. **__**I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, they all belong to Kishimoto-san. Kuraito Eien and his abilities/techniques are mine.**_

__"So, Kuraito, I always meant to ask," Sakura began as they ate lunch. "How did you and Naruto ever become friends? You two are so different sometimes, I wonder how you could have gotten along."

Kuraito ordered another bowl of ramen, then turned to Sakura. "This is gonna take a long time to tell. You up for a few hours of listening to me?"

"I'm curious as to how the loudest knucklehead of our class and you, one of the smartest people I know, met and became friends." Sakura was openly determined.

"You're not gonna let it rest, are you?" Kuraito sighed before attacking his fifth bowl of ramen.

"No." Sakura snapped back.

Kuraito groaned. "Alright, then. Let's go for a walk. I speak more when I'm moving." He stood and left the pay for both of their lunches. He and Sakura started wandering the village. "Let's see..." He pondered for a moment. "I met my psuedo-brother about six years ago, the night of his and my birthday..."

Kuraito walked through Konoha's streets, taking in the sights and sounds of the festival celebrating the defeat of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. He let his eyes wander when he saw a group of angry villagers stumbling down an alley. '_Why are they so mad? Everyone else is happy._' Kuraito decided to follow them, letting his curiosity take hold. He turned the corner to see the drunk men beating someone he remebered seeing at the orphanage. Kuraito stood there, frozen for a second, until he heard the other child's screams of pain. He didn't think, he just ran to try to help the other kid, who he now identified as Naruto, a child the head of the orphanage said was a very bad boy to talk to.

Kuraito didn't care as he started senselessly beating his tiny fists of the back of the nearest drunk, who turned around and smacked him aside into the wall. Kuraito started to cry, but then choked it down as he realized that the men were really trying to hurt Naruto. Kuraito had no idea what Naruto could have done wrong, but he was Kuraito's age. The little boy with icy blue eyes glared at the men and yelled. "Hey! Stop hurting Naruto!" He immediately regretted his words as the men turned to face him, but he held his ground until something in him snapped. All of his fear and despair disappeared, replaced by a primal fury.

As the nearby ANBU appeared, Kuraito stared the villagers dead in the eyes, his own eyes starting to glow with a haunting blue hue. "Don't ever hurt Naruto again! If you even try to touch him, I'll kill you!" Kuraito was near-incoherent with rage as he saw the lack of remorse in the eyes of the drunk men.

"Why does this kid want to defend the demon?" One said, still holding a bottle of sake.

"Does it matter?" Another said, raising a fist. "He's on the demon brat's side, so he'll share the punishment..."

"I hope I didn't just hear you break the Third Hokage's law." The ANBU said from behind the leader of the group, who was preparing to strike Kuraito.

"Uhh..." All of the drunks were nervous as they realized their position.

"I'm placing you all under arrest for assault of a minor and nearly disclosing an S-rank secret." The ANBU said, gesturing for his teammates to apprehend. "As for you, boy." He looked at Kuraito, who was still defiantly glaring at anyone he thought might try to hurt Naruto. The ANBU took off his mask, walked over to Kuraito, crouched down, and put a hand on the boy's head, ruffling his hair. "That was very brave of you." Itachi Uchiha said to the young Kuraito Eien. "I have a little brother about your age. I think you two would get along well." He turned around and picked up Naruto. "Why don't you come with me to the hospital, those men roughed you up a bit, too, didn't they?"

Kuraito nodded warily, watching the ANBU closely the entire way to the hospital. He finally spoke as they approached the hospital. "Sir, what's your name?"

Itachi laughed. "Silent the whole way here, and now he speaks, just to politely ask my name? You are a strange kid, Kuraito." He looked at Kuraito. "I am Itachi of the Uchiha Clan." He turned the corner to enter the hospital yard.

The two entered the hospital, Itachi was still carrying an unconcious Naruto. Kuraito's right eye had swollen a bit where the drunk man hit him.

"Time for his annual visit. And now he has a friend here." Itachi said, gesturind towards Kuraito as he said "friend." "So, I will know if Naruto doesn't receive proper care this time. Kuraito, you know where to find me." With that, Itachi left.

"So you're Naruto's, uh, friend?" The nurse said nervously. "You look like you got a bit beaten up yourself."

"Yeah," Kuraito said. "I just wanted them to stop hurting Naruto, 'cuz he didn't do anything wrong." He rubbed his head where it hit the ground. "They called him 'demon' or something. I don't know why, though."

The nurse was nervous as she carried Naruto to a room that Kuraito could stay in as well. "Well, you two can stay here until you're all better." She set Naruto down on a bet, careful to not cause his current injuries to become any worse. She walked out of the room until she felt a tug on her skirt.

"Ma'am?" Kuraito said, looking up at her.

"Yes, what can I do for you?" The nurse asked kindly, appreciating Kuraito's manners.

"Can I have a blankey?" He asked innocently, nearly causing the nurse to "kawaii" until next week.

"Of course, but you should stay here and keep Naruto company. I'll help you into a chair so you can keep watch." The nurse ushered Kuraito toward Naruto's bedside, pulled up a chair next to the bed and placed Kuraito in it. "I'll be right back, okay?"

"Okay." Kuraito said, watching Naruto.

When the nurse returned, Kuraito had fallen asleep in the chair. She smiled, picking the boy up and putting him in the bed next to Naruto's. She put a blanket over either boy.

"So you and Naruto were in the hospital together and you've been best friends since?" Sakura asked.

"Uh, not exactly. We got along pretty well when we woke up, but I wouldn't say were were friends until about the time we went back to the orphanage." Kuraito replied, starting again.

The headmistress of the orphanage was at a loss for words. The nurse who had taken care of Naruto and Kuraito kept commenting on how polite Kuraito had been, as well as how Naruto had been very thankful to both the nurse and Kuraito. "I have no idea what kind of curse you put on her to make her say such things, but she obviously had to have been under a genjutsu of some kind to think that you," she pointed at Naruto. "Were nice in any way, and you," Her focus switched to Kuraito, who was looking at her with a six year-old's equivalent of a "fuck you" expression. "You couldn't show manners if Kami herself blessed you with the sense to use them."

"As much as I believe you should be teaching these children," A voice said from the entryway. "You should not berate them in such a way as to make them feel less than human."

"Ojii-san!" Naruto yelled excitedly, running towards the Third Hokage.

Kuraito followed him, but stopped a few paces from the old man an looked at him intently. "You are the Hokage?" He asked pointedly.

"That I am, young man. And who might you be?" The Professor looked at the small boy with penetrating eyes.

Kuraito bowed. "My name is Kuraito Eien, Hokage-sama. I am honored to meet you."

"Don't be fooled by his display, Hokage-sama. That boy before you is extremely rude and disrespectful to any authority figure here." The headmistress was indignant as sho witnessed Kuraito's cordial display of immaculate manners.

"I'm only rude because you and everyone else here is so mean!" Kuraito yelled, glaring at the woman. "You said Naruto was bad, but I watched people from the village beat him and call him 'demon'! When I tried to help him, they hit me, too..." Kuraito looked down at the ground.

"I will be taking these boys to their new residence. If they have anything..." The Third said.

"They don't have anything, I swear." The headmistress looked very nervous.

Kuraito looked at the Hokage and shrugged, while Naruto shook his head.

"Then let's go find you two an apartment..." Hiruzen Sarutobi ushered the emancipated boys out of the orphanage as they began to search for an apartment.

"So, Hokage-sama took you two out of the orphanage?" Sakura asked as she and Kuraito sat in the park.

"Yeah, but we obviously didn't meet you all until we started going to the academy..." Kuraito replied, looking up at the sky.


	11. The Academy

_**AN: I finally figured out most of the backstory, thank the gods. Right about this point is where Kuraito's current personality will develop, for those of you who care to know when he became a lazy, sadistic mo-fo... The laziness comes here, the sadism came from his time with Anko and Ibiki. I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, they all belong to Kishimoto-san. Kuraito Eien and his abilities/techniques are mine.**_

__"Yeah, but we obviously didn't meet you all until we started going to the academy..."

"Happy first day of school, Kuraito!" Naruto yelled, jumping on his friend's makeshift bed on the floor.

"Nnngh..." Kuraito groaned, sitting up. "Why do you have to wake up so loud?" He looked at the clock. "And we don't even have to be awake for another hour, dummy." Kuraito flopped back down on the ground, determined to get some extra sleep.

"No way, Kuraito..." Naruto said, grabbing his friend by the feet. Kuraito in turn grabbed the bed next to him that Naruto slept in, which was bolted into the floor. As Naruto pulled, Kuraito held onto the bed, determined to sleep in just a bit longer.

The struggle continued for that last hour, in which Kuraito failed to get any extra sleep. As Kuraito got dressed, he looked at what Naruto was wearing.

"Not happening." He said to the hyperactive blonde.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, confused.

"I'm not walking with you if you're gonna wear that..." Kuraito gestured at the blindingly orange jumpsuit with blue sections and white collar that Naruto was wearing in addition to his usual sandals and goggles.

"Then what do you plan on wearing?" Naruto demanded.

"Shirt with that design that ojii-san showed me, cargos, boots..." Kuraito said.

"Boots?" Naruto cocked his head in confusion.

"Yes, baka," Kuraito held up a pair of sage green steel-toed boots he'd bought with his clothing allowance from the Hokage. "Boots."

"But can you run in those?" Naruto asked.

"Not yet, but that's why I have to train in them." Kuraito spoke logically, having thought out his decision. "I even saw a pair with chakra-powered weights built into the bottoms!"

"You're weird, Kuraito." Naruto stated.

"Says the loudmouth in a bright orange jumpsuit." Kuraito shot back as they walked out the door.

"I like orange!" Naruto yelled indignantly.

"And I like black, but I'm not covered in it." Kuraito said as they started walking down the road to the Ninja Academy. They continued in this manner even until they walked in the door. 

Both boys stood at the front of the class, looking for two empty seats, but found only scattered spots empty.

"So, do we ask someone to..." Naruto began.

"We'll be fine here, Naruto." Kuraito said, clapping his friend on the shoulder. "Go sit next to that pink-haired girl, she looks nice." He gestured towards the girl.

"Then you have to sit next to the blonde girl over there." Naruto pointed at the blonde, who was sitting close to the other girl, staring at Kuraito, who stared right back.

"I think I'll sit somewhere else..." The Eien boy said nervously. He walked up to the top row and saw a boy with pineapple-like hair laying his head on the desk in front of him, obviously sleeping. "Uh, excuse me." He poked the boy on the arm.

The youth woke up, still sleepy-looking, and regarded Kuraito with a tired look. "What's up?"

"Can I sit here?" Kuraito gestured toward the space next to the boy.

"Sure," The tired kid replied. "But I have to warn you, my friend Chouji is going to beg for food when he sees you, even if he has a bag of chips in his hand."

"I'm probably gonna be sleeping..." Kuraito said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

"Huh?" The boy looked at Kuraito, then held out his hand. "Shikamaru Nara, and you are?"

Kuraito took Shikamaru's hand and shook it. "Kuraito Eien."

Meanwhile, Naruto was becoming acquainted with the pink-haired girl, who identified herself as Sakura Haruno. Naruto thought she was really nice, and kept talking to her until the other blonde, who Naruto pointed out for Kuraito, interrupted.

"Excuse me, but could you tell me about your friend?" The blonde asked. "I'm Ino Yamanaka, by the way."

"Why do you want to know about Kuraito?" Naruto responded. He wondered why a girl would be so curious about the boy he considered to be his brother.

"He's so mysterious looking..." Ino mused. "Why does he hide his eyes?"

"I don't really know. His eyes look really cool, so I think he should be showing them off." Naruto got a bit excited very quickly. He felt a presence behind him as Kuraito had suddenly appeared. "Hey, nii-san, we were just talking about you!"

"I heard." Kuraito said with a note of irritation. "I thought we said no one would know about my eyes, Naruto. You know I don't like how people act when they see them..."

"But they're so cool..." Naruto began.

"You think so, but half the village that's seen me with my eyes uncovered thinks I'm related to some clan called the 'Yamanaka' or something like that..." Kuraito said dejectedly. "I don't even know why, when I tell them my last name is Eien..."

"They think you're from the Yamanaka Clan?" Ino piped up, interested in the boy even more. "Come on, let me see them! I want to see what they look like!"

"You're really loud and pushy for a girl," Kuraito said, backing away from the Yamanaka girl. He bumped into another new student in the process. "Oh, excuse me..." He turned around to apologize.

"It's n-not your fault," The girl stammered. She had bluish black hair, an oversized hoodie, blue pants, and sandals, but Kuraito couldn't see her eyes. "I should have seen you backing away. I'm sorry I bumped into you..."

"No, the fault's mine," Kuraito said, trying to make the girl feel better. "I'm Kuraito Eien. What's your name?" He held out a hand.

"A-anou, I'm H-Hinata Hyuuga." She didn't look up as shee shook Kuraito's hand.

"What, I'm not the only one who wants to hide their eyes?" Kuraito asked playfully, trying to be friendly. He was startled when the girl looked straight at him, revealing pupilless, lavender eyes. "Whoa..." Kuraito stared in wonder.

"I-i-is there something wrong? Did I do something..." Hinata started to freak out a bit.

"No, no, no!" Kuraito said, waving his hands. "I've just never seen eyes like yours. They're very pretty..."

Naruto was off to the side, trying to suppress his laughter as he watched his friend get so worked up trying to apologize to a girl he just met. He took one look at Kuraito and remained silent for the Eien boy's sake.

"A-arigatou..." Hinata said, blushing lightly at this praise from a boy she had just met.

"Well, it looks like the sensei should be here any moment, so I have to hide with Shikamaru." Kuraito said, rubbing the back of his head. "Maybe I could talk to you later?" He looked up, letting the hair hiding his eyes fall away, revealing his icy blue orbs.

Hinata gasped when she saw his eyes. "Is there something wrong with your eyes?" She moved a hand up to brush away more of his hair, mesmerized by the color and depth of Kuraito's eyes. "They're different from anything I've ever seen." She pulled her hand away sharply. "Anou, gomenasai."

"You aren't freaking out?" Kuraito was somewhat puzzled, not bothering to hide his eyes now.

"T-they're very nice, actually." Hinata said, smiling. "They remind me of the moon."

"Uh..." Kuraito was speechless, as no one had ever complimented his eyes except Naruto, who was his best friend, and couldn't ever outright insult anyone. "T-thank you." He blushed as he walked away. '_She likes my eyes._"

Sakura and Naruto continued to chat until the sensei walked in. He was an older shinobi, who took one look at Naruto and began to scowl. "As much as I would love to be yor sensei, that boy," He pointed at the clueless blonde. "Has made it so that I am not willing to teach any of you. Goodbye." With that, he walked out the door again.

All the other children looked at Naruto in confusion. He was just as confused, since the sensei treated him like the other villagers did. '_What did I do that was so wrong?_'

He felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Kuraito smiling down at him sadly. "I know this sucks, nii-san. I'll try to find ojii-san, and see what's wrong." Kuraito walked away.

"He's so nice..." Sakura and Ino sighed as they watched him walk away, but their attention was soon turned to the dark-haired Uchiha boy in the class. He was quietly looking out the window, watching Kuraito run off toward the Hokage's building.

Naruto walked over to the window and watched his friend as well, keeping a small distance between himself and the dark-haired boy. "He's gonna go talk to jiji-san and see if we can get a sensei in here soon." He said, grinning. "I'm Naruto, what's your name?"

The other boy jumped a little, not realizing Naruto had been standing there. "I'm Sasuke," He replied after calming down a bit. "How did you sneak up on me?"

"Huh?" Naruto asked. "I didn't mean to, I'm sorry."

"Oh, alright." Sasuke turned his gaze back to the window. "What do you know about him?"

"He and I have lived together for two years." Naruto said, thinking back. "He's an orphan, like me, but his parents didn't live in the village. Jiji-san never told him where they were from, though." Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "He made the headmistress of the orphanage really mad every time he talked to her, calling her 'loud banshee' and 'slave driver' every chance he got." Naruto laughed as he remembered the time that Kuraito had put glue on the bottoms of her shoes in the entry to the orphanage. When the headmistress tried to walk forward, she had fallen flat on her face, while Kuraito walked by, slipped his sandals on, and waved goodbye with an evil look in his eye.

"He sounds kinda mean, now that you mention that." Sasuke shivered at what kind of person Kuraito had to be without Naruto around. "Why would he do that to someone who was taking care of him?"

"She treated both of us badly, but I don't know why she was so mean." Naruto thought back on the times that she withheld his food simply because she was in a bad mood. "She even told the other children at the orphanage we were bad to talk to, but I was supposedly the worse person somehow."

"Oh, so then how did you get out?" Sasuke was curious. "Did someone adopt you two?"

"No, we live alone..." Naruto looked down in a semi-depressed fashion.

"That's not possible!" Sakura blurted out. "Who cooks?"

Naruto looked up. "Kuraito."

"Who cleans?" Ino cycled in.

"Both of us..." He scratched the back of his head.

"Who takes care of everything else?" Sakura again.

His chest puffed out a little. "Jiji-san and me."

Both girls were dumbfounded and speechless as Naruto answered every question without hesitation or uncertainty.

"But then how did..." Sakura began as Kuraito ran through the classroom door, hiding under a desk near the back.

"Don't let him get me..." Kuraito looked like he'd seen a true demon as a somewhat cheerful chuunin walked through the door. He had brown hair tied at the top of his head, a scar across his nose, and a leaf headband around the top of his head.

"Hello, everyone. My name is Iruka Umino, and I will be your sensei." He looked around the room. "Has anyone seen a boy with pale blonde hair, looks like a Yamanaka..."

All the heads in the class shifted in the direction of where Kuraito was hiding. He stood up sheepishly, looking Iruka in the eyes. "Sorry I hit you with that balloon, sensei..."

"No, you actually displayed very good thinking skills." Iruka smiled as he praised the confused Eien boy. "You planned an ambush as a contingency if your first prank didn't work to get my attention."

"You're not mad?" Kuraito looked at the chuunin sensei.

"Oh, no..." Iruka said, looking at Kuraito evilly. "I'm mad. So, as punishment, give me one hundred pushups, right now." He pointed at the floor at his feet.

"Proceeding, sir..." Kuraito moaned as he got on his face and started pushing. As he finished his twentieth push-up, he spotted a glimmer. '_Oh, no..._' He thought as he realized Naruto had his own plan in place. Kuraito started pushing so fast and with as much force as he could muster that the floor under his hands started to crack and splinter. He finished the hundredth push-up and stood up. "Done, sir. Also, you may want to duck." He walked to his desk as several micro-balloons flew past his head and hit the chuunin, covering him in paint.

"NARUTO!" Iruka immediately identified the creator of the prank, who was rolling on the floor laughing. "Two hundred push-ups, NOW!"

The entire class sighed simultaneously. "Baka..." Naruto was grinning the entire time he carried out his punishment.

At the end of class, Kuraito and Naruto alone had performed sixteen successful pranks, carried out the punishments amounting to seven hundred push-ups each, ten laps around the village perimeter, nine hundred sit-ups, and a plethora of other punishments. The were in the best shape out of all the students at the Academy by the end of the first year, during which Kuraito's personality shifted to one that was far more laid-back and calculating. He also became much more aware of his surroundings while his best friend tried to prank him every day on the way to the Academy.

Naruto, on the other hand, became more and more creative as their sensei found ways to counter simpler pranks. He and Kuraito spent days in advance planning the actions that would catch Iruka off guard every time. He continued to forge relationships with the other members of his class, even trying to become closer with Sakura. However, after Sasuke's clan was brutally murdered, Naruto become more social with the Uchiha boy, despite his obvious dislike of the hyperactive blonde. Sakura, in turn, began to follow Sasuke with the same fervor as the rest of his fangirls, until she became so unwilling to talk to Naruto that she even went so far as to keep from speaking to him in class.

Ino, who had been interested in Kuraito since the first day at the Academy, continued to watch him as she, too, was drawn into the Sasuke Uchiha fangirl squad. When this was mentioned to Kuraito as he chatted with Sasuke during on lunch period, he stood and shouted to the heavens, "Thank the gods almighty, I'm free at last!"

The end of the first year was one of both relief and dread for the Academy students. They knew that the easiest work was now over. Now came the training to increase their chakra capacity and control. The ones who struggled the most with control were Naruto and Kiba, while Kuraito usually just hid in a tree during the excercises until Iruka caught him one day.

"But sensei, I can already do all this stuff..." He complained as Iruka tried to get Kuraito down from the tree. "Can't I just go train with Lee and Gai-sensei?" As he uttered these words, Iruka let him go and just gaped at the boy.

"Train with who..?" Iruka asked, dumbfounded that anyone would be so foolish as to train with the taijutsu freaks of the village.

"Lee and Gai-sensei. Did I stutter or something, Iruka-sensei?" He waved a hand in front of the unresponsive chuunin's face. "Iruka-sensei..."

A massive explosion resounded in the training yard as a smoek bomb was released.

"Did the Green Beast of Konoha just hear his name?" Might Gai yelled as he appeared from inside the smoke cloud. He looked at the little blonde who was staring at him in confusion. "Ah, Kuraito. My star student. Are you not still in the Academy to be speaking of training with myself?"

"But Gai-sensei, they don't even teach Konoha Senpou here..." Kuraito complained. "They're all about 'chakra control' this and that. And they want me to learn jutsu I won't even need, since you made me so fast..."

"Do not discount the basics, young Kuraito. They may help you in a pinch." Gai chided the boy. He moved in closer. "I'll teach you the basics of my taijutsu if you can beat me in a contest of strength and endurance..."

"What is it, Gai-sensei?" Kuraito finally show emotion as he was eager to face any challenge the crazy jounin had to offer.

As this exchange to place, Iruka and the rest of the class looked on in wonder as the most quiet boy in class was trying to be trained by the most self-driven jounin in the entire village.

Naruto was once again trying to engage Sakura in conversation, but she calmly shushed him as she watched Kuraito with interest. Naruto noted that all the girls in Sasuke's fanclub were focused on his friend, which confused him. In response to his confusion, he walked around the crowd and up to his friend. "Hey, Kuraito, why are all the girls staring at you? Your eyes aren't glowing, are they?" The hyperactive blonde was oblivious to the befuddled jounin behind him.

Kuraito looked over to see what Naruto was talking about. At this lack of attention, Gai disappeared, leaving Kuraito to his fate. The hapless Eien boy turned to face the crowd of enamored fangirls. Sasuke walked up next him and whispered in his ear. "If you run now, we can cover your escape." Kuraito just nodded and started running. He looked back to see only Ino chasing him, screaming his name.

These antics were to continue for the entire duration of the Academy. The days where Ino left Kuraito alone were filled by Naruto getting him into some new prank or scheme to defile parts of the village. Kuraito also took adventage of Naruto's hopeless inattention to the world by getting Ino to pay more attention to the more hyperactive of the two orphans. This attempt usually failed, as Naruto and Ino would clash repeatedly.

As the end of their Academy term drew near, Kuraito was witness to the creation of Naruto's signature jutsu. After many days of helping his friend research material on naked women, Kuraito was the first victim of the "Oiroke no Jutsu."

"Why do you need a jutsu like this?" Kuraito asked as Naruto grinned evilly at his idea.

Naruto started performing the necessary handsigns. "To catch Iruka-sensei off-guard next time we do the Henge no Jutsu."

"Uh, Naruto are you sure this is a good idea..?" Kuraito began.

"Henge!" Naruto shouted, disappearing in a cloud of smoke. The smoke cleared partially, revealing a fully naked female version of Naruto. She had long blonde pigtails and a perfect hourglass figure. Naruto's distinctive whisker marks and bright blue eyes were still present.

Kuraito looked for a moment, his mouth hanging open. Then his nose started to drip blood. "You, Naruto, are a genius; a perverted, mad genius."


	12. How Far Will A Toad Sage Fly

_**AN: Kinda had a fight with my muse**__**. The last review I got was a bit**__** harsh, but at least it was a review. The filler **__**still needs work, but**__** I**__** will**__** come up with something else later. Job **__**training, work and college are going to be slightly detrimental to my writing, but will not stop me entirely. My **__pezzo di merda __**computer kept crashing two weeks ago, so I had to let it rest for a bit, while I worked on new ideas. I must tell everyone now t**__**hat I'm most likely not going to deviate from my current OC-centric **__**storyline;**__** it's just too fun for me. Plus, I'm not gonna mess with Naruto's personality, that would violate my sense of justice as a writer.**__** I will work more on the relationship between Naruto and Kuraito as best as I can.**__** I'm just gonna keep throwing my ideas together **__**until they don't give me a "randomnessity-triggered headache" as I'm going to call it. There will be methodology to my incessant madness, else I will meditate (no really, I do that) until my mind i**__**s no longer riddled with the inappropriate**__** flashes of sever**__**e plot twists and omake triggered by reading other authors' material.**____**I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, they all belong to Kishimoto-san. Kuraito Eien and his abilities/techniques are mine.**_

Kuraito and Sakura parted ways as afternoon approached. Kuraito then decided to try to track down Naruto. '_I just hope he isn't traumatizing that dorky jounin. What was his name? Ebisu?_' The Eien boy wandered for a couple hours until he heard his friends typical loud-mouthed announcement of some random person's flaw. What irritated Kuraito however was that he distinctly heard the word "pervert" in the descritives and immediately bolted to the source of Naruto's voice.

Kuraito arrived at what appeared to be the village hot springs to see Ebisu knocked out and Naruto pointing at a white-haired man who was sitting on what appeared to be a toad. A tick mark grew on Kuraito's head as he evaluated the situation.

"You're nothing but a peeping pervert!" Naruto yelled again.

"I'm not just a pervert!" The man shot back.

Kuraito felt a slight disturbance at what he sensed was coming next.

"I'm a super pervert!" The old man proclaimed loudly and proudly. Naruto deadpanned but sensed a growing presence of murderous rage behind him. He turned around and almost greeted Kuraito until he saw the dark aura around his best friend.

Kuraito's eyes were shaded by his eye sockets and his irises were glowing. He cracked his knuckles loudly, earning a wince from Naruto and a glance from the old man.

"And what exactly is your problem?" The man asked irritably.

Kuraito looked up at the man. "I was raised to respect women…" He cracked his neck. "You wouldn't happen to have been peeping," He looked at the man. "Would you?" Kuraito's chakra became visible as he stared at the man.

"As a matter of fact, I do not have to answer to you." The man crossed his arms and regarded Kuraito sternly. Naruto gulped nervously as he realized that his friend was about to "go demon" on this man. The normally fearless, hyperactive blonde backed away slowly until he was several meters away from the projected area of decimation. "Do you have any idea who I am, you two?"

"No," Both blondes said, confused at the sudden change of subject.

"I," The man began in a showman style. "am the Great Toad Sage Jiraiya!" He did an odd dance as he proclaimed his many supposed places of fame, but Kuraito recognized the name from only one place.

"You're that stupid old man who writes Kakashi's favorite dirty novels." Kuraito deadpanned, his rage rising again. '_Approximate weight, 90 kilograms. Projected distance of launch, 600 meters. __D__estination, Hokage's office._'

Naruto looked on as he noticed the focused look on Kuraito's face. '_He only has that look when he's about to…_'

"Ninpou: Hentai no Kidou!" Kuraito appeared behind Jiraiya, swung his leg back and said, "Target locked, commence Pervert Launch." He kicked Jiraiya in his backside with raw force and launched the old man at nearly 200 kilometers per hour. Jiraiya screamed something about the "spawn of Tsunade" as he flew towards the Hokage's office at top speed.

Naruto winced in sympathy as he heard the crash of the old man going through the window in the office. He waited a few seconds then busted out laughing as Kuraito sneezed.

"Ojii-san knows it was you, doesn't he?" Naruto managed to work out between laughs.

Kuraito rubbed his nose. "Probably, yeah." He started walking in the direction he'd launched the Toad Sage. "I should go apologize to both of them now. You get to come along, though."

"Nani? You launched him!" Naruto was outraged until he saw the look his friend gave him.

"You caught him peeping, though." Kuraito continued walking. "I just hope he doesn't become our teacher or something like that."

After several minutes of walking to the opposite side of the village, Kuraito and Naruto found themselves standing before the door to the Hokage's office. Naruto looked over to Kuraito, whose expression betrayed no thoughts flowing through his mind. Naruto couldn't help but wonder at how Kuraito had become so strong, until he remembered the days where Kuraito would disappear as soon as they got home, only to walk through the main room door covered in cuts and bruises, muttering curses and things about "Gai-sensei" and "Lee no baka", as well as other things that became unintelligible as the calmer of the two blondes collapsed into his bed and fell asleep without eating dinner.

Naruto chuckled quietly as his silent mirth attracted his friend's attention. "What's got you tickled, Chuckles?" He asked irritably, not being able to read Naruto's purpose for laughing.

"Just thinking about the Academy..." Naruto said, dodging the question effortlessly.

Kuraito looked at Naruto for a few seconds before sighing, looking towards the door in front of him and pushing his way into the office. He ducked, avoiding a large book aimed for his head.

"That's the brat that launched me here, sensei. I told you he'd come to inspect his work..." The sage ranted, steam coming out of his ears in a comical fashion. He picked up another book and prepared to throw it until the Hokage laid his hand on Jiraiya's arm, lowering it slowly.

"We will not shed further blood over a conflict that has already been resolved," Sarutobi said. "If in a rather unorthodox manner." He turned to face the two blondes. "Naruto, you had no part in the violence imparted on Jiraiya, you are free to go. However, seeing as how you are in need of a teacher, he will be your new sensei until the final exam." He turned his focus to the icy-eyed Kuraito, who bore a mixed look of confusion and amusement. "Kuraito, your actions, while warranted," This drew a look of shock from Jiraiya. "Were unacceptable. You will first assist in the repairs of my window, then you will also be assigned to Jiraiya as a private student, as Hayate will still be busy with the exams."

There was a short pause as the information sunk in, then Jiraiya and Kuraito shouted out simultaneously. "Nani!"

"You heard me. The topic is not up for discussion, now get going." The God of Shinobi said sternly. He turned around to face his still shattered window.

"Yes, ojii-san..." Kuraito sighed, walking out of the office. '_I hope I'm not going to be stuck with that perv Jiraiya._'

Several hours later, Kuraito wandered back to the apartment, pondering the most recent trouble he'd gotten himself into. He stared at the door to the double unit, absentmindedly pulling out his key. As he opened the door, he sidestepped to avoid the water balloon trap he'd seen Naruto setting up earlier that day. The balloons collided with the wall next to him and he walked inside. Naruto greeted him in an unusually enthusiastic manner.

"Kuraito! Guess what?" The hyper blonde practically screamed at his roommate.

Kuraito snapped his fingers next to his ears to stop the ringing caused by his friend's loud voice. "You've finally stopped pursuing Sakura-san and started going after Hinata-chan?" At Naruto's confused look, Kuraito almost busted out laughing. "Or does this have something to do with the ero-sennin we met today?"

"He taught the Yondaime!" Naruto seemed thrilled at this tidbit. "And he said that he would teach me summoning jutsu, but he didn't say what he was going to teach you..." Naruto then calmed down at this last part. "I tried asking over and over again, but he wouldn't give me an answer."

Kuraito rubbed his temples. "That's because he needs to tell me first so that I don't immediately refuse to come. Tricky bastard..."

"I found something else out, as well." Naruto managed to catch the Eien boy's attention again. "He didn't write just dirty novels. He wrote one other book before he started Kakashi-sensei's favorite series. Icha-Icha, I think was the name." The Jinchuuriki paled as he felt the temperature in the room drop noticeably. Kuraito's eyes were glowing. "Uh, Kuraito..."

Kuraito stirred out of his reverie concering the damage he would inflict upon the sage for his part in any sort of dirty novels. "Did I do it again?" He asked sheepishly, the room returning to normal. However, a storm was brewing outside.

"I think you did something..." Naruto said quietly as thunder rumbled outside.

"I just hope I can make a justu out of it..." Kuraito responded.

The next day, Kuraito was shocked awake after receiving a vision the night before.

_**Recollection**_

___The Watcher was present again. This time he was looking off into the distance, where a gigantic thunderhead was brewing. "Do you know why I'm speaking to you again?"_

_ Kuraito bowed as he approached his spiritual mentor. "Something to do with the storm that popped out of nowhere when I got mad about ero-sennin, I imagine?"_

_ "Correct." The Watcher regarded the young Farseer calmly. "Your family was gifted with the Muraigan, yes. However, before they learned to peer into the future, they were capable of generating the strongest Storm jutsu in the world. For this reason, they sent their most gifted Stormweavers to study in solitude on lonely islands near the Land of Waves. They would watch the weather to determine exactly what their jutsu would need to generate a massive storm cell."_

_ "Exactly how do you intend to explain the damned typhoon that just appeared outside my window, then?" Kuraito demanded. "I never studied anything related to the weather. We're only taught a very basic understanding of meteorology..." He paused as he pondered the classes._

_ "Which part did you actually pay attention to?" The Watcher asked amusedly._

_ "Thunderstorms, tornadoes, typhoons, and air pressure changes... Oh..." Kuraito finally made the connection._

_ "I don't blame you. Earthquakes and sandstorms are rather lame compared to the power of a well-formed storm..." The Watcher seemed to be almost giggling at the thought of the potential widespread destruction, and Kuraito found himself doing the same._

_ Kuraito looked at the spirit, taking in his obviously inhuman appearance and the things he'd done in the past few weeks. "Watcher..." He caught the spirit's attention. "What exactly are you? Are you a god?"_

_ The Watcher merely blinked and laughed boisterously. "It took most of your ancestors well over twenty years after mastering their abilities to make that guess." He drew on every ounce of self-control to maintain his dignified appearance. "Yes and no."_

_ "I would ask after this, but something tells me that the alarm next to my head is about to go off, so I'll question you next time." Kuraito waved as his spirit form faded."_

_** End Flashback**_

Naruto walked in, rubbing his eyes as Kuraito's alarm went off. The offensive device was quickly zapped by lightning that somehow came inside through the window. All that was left was a pile of melted plastic, metal, and glass slag. Both blondes stared for a few seconds, then busted out laughing.

"I guess even Kami doesn't think you need to wake up today, Kuraito." Naruto said as he caught his breath.

Kuraito sat up, rubbing his icy blue eyes. His chakra flared and another lightning bolt struck just outside their window. Both boys stopped what they were doing and stared. "Chakra flares... Bad idea for me when indoors..."

"Yeah..." Naruto agreed timidly, nodding and staring outside at the storm still roiling outside.

"Ugh..." Kuraito fell onto his back again. "We have to train with ero-sennin today, don't we?" Thunder rumbled outside, as if in agreement with his displeasure.

"Yeah. And Kuraito?" Naruto said nervously.

"What's up?"

"No more chakra flares today? You might kill him." The sky cracked with a massive peal of thunder as Kuraito grinned evilly.

"Or I can fix the pervert's unnecessary hobby..." He said, taking a pondering position.

"Oh, Kami help us all..." Naruto groaned as he left to prepare himself for the day.


	13. Storms Crack The Sky

_**AN: I got myself a new POS computer that doesn't have a failing HDD or pathetic processor incapable of running Open Office from a flash drive. I also had to cope with working ten hours a day in the wonderful Arizona sunlight all damn day. Still, I get paid for it, which is fine by me. Yes, I know I gave Kuraito yet another overpowered ability, as well as added to the mystery of the Watcher. I still don't know where that idea came from... But I digress. I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, they all belong to Kishimoto-san. Kuraito Eien and his abilities/techniques are mine.**_

Naruto walked next to Kuraito, occasionally glancing at his friend. The other blonde bore a focused look as they walked towards the area where they agreed to meet Jiraiya. Naruto pondered exactly what he wanted to ask the sage, but couldn't think of anything short of what justu he could learn that the Fourth Hokage had learned himself.

"What do you really think of learning from Ero-Sennin, Kuraito?" Naruto finally asked as they were halfway to the waterfalls where they had agreed to meet Jiraiya.

"I think he's a pervert," Thunder rumbled overhead as Kuraito said this. "But he does seem to know a thing or two about jutsu that we could learn before the final exams." The taller blonde took a focused pose as they walked, one hand under his chin as he looked up to the sky. "I have to wonder though, why did he agree to train us?"

"We'll find out I guess." Naruto said as he threw both of his hands behind his head.

The two blondes walked to the waterfalls on the perimeter of the village, spotting the sage crouched in some bushes, giggling like a fool. A tick mark developed on Kuraito's head until he saw Naruto walk up behind the sage and perform his Oiroke no Jutsu. Kuraito looked away as he heard the innocent voice of his friend's tranformed self. He palmed his forehead as Jiraiya turned around excitedly, not noticing the girls on the other side of the bushes leaving the area.

"Jiraiya..." Kuraito said dangerously as he appeared behind the sage.

The toad sage stiffened visibly as he slowly turned around to face the irritated Farseer. "Yes, brat? Can I help you?"

"You agreed to teach us new jutsu..." Kuraito jumped up, did a frontflip, and axe kicked Jiraiya on the top of his head while yelling. "NOT PEEP ON WOMEN!"

Jiraiya's face smashed into the ground, leaving a small hole as he picked himself up. "You would get along so well with a former teammate of mine..." He said with a small groan.

"Like I care, pervert." Kuraito shot back.

"Gah! Enough, you two!" Naruto yelled at the bickering pair. "Ero-Sennin, you said you'd teach me a super cool justu!"

"And I will. Provided, however, that the other one doesn't try to castrate me every time I'm performing my research." Jiraiya said before Kuraito smashed his fist into the man's head.

"Kuraito..." Naruto said with a begging tone to his voice.

The other blonde was preparing to rip a large and long dead tree branch out of the ground to club Jiraiya with. "He deserves it, though..." He complained.

"I promise to each you some of your family's justu as well, Sadist." Jiraiya said as he dodged a kick from Kuraito.

This stopped the Eien boy in his tracks. "My... family?"

"Yes, gaki." Jiraiya replied, crossing his arms. "You have a doujutsu and the weather is reflecting your mood. I can teach you ways to control both of these abilities." He turned away, looking at Kuraito from one eye. "So I suggest you quit trying to hurt me whenever I do my research..."

As the sage said this, the air around him grew thick and smelled of ozone. Kuraito looked at the old man and waved to him in a farewell motion before lightning struck the Toad Sage, comically electrocuting him. He fell over and coughed out a small puff of smoke. "I would say that my control is already improving, wouldn't you say, Naruto?" He looked over to his friend, an innocent-looking smile plastered on his face.

Naruto backed away, slightly disturbed by the look Kuraito held, as well as the calm air he now exuded, despite having commited several acts of severe violence against the now unconcious Jiraiya. "You scare me, Kuraito..." Naruto said as he stared at the smoking ruin that was Jiraiya.

"He'll be fine..." Kuraito waved a hand towards Jiraiya as he moved to sit against a nearby rock. "He should be awake in an hour or so." At this, Kuraito leaned back and proceeded to sleep.

As Jiraiya finally started moving again, he was rudely awakened by having Naruto land on his back. He screamed as several of his verterbrae popped from the force.

"Hey! Ero-Sennin is awake!" Naruto exclaimed as he pushed himself off the now concious toad sage. He moved away as Kuraito walked towards the two and extended his hand towards Jiraiya.

The old man recoiled for a second before looking at the serious blonde. "And what exactly are you playing at now, gaki?"

Kuraito sighed and said, "I'm apologizing for my treatment of you over the last twenty-four hours." He retracted his hand and bowed halfway. As he stood, he regarded Jiraiya calmly. "While I do not approve of your typical 'activities', if they can be referred to as such, I do wish to learn something new from someone who appears to know where I came from."

Naruto's jaw dropped. '_Kuraito's being nice to someone that isn't a girl?_' He shook his head to clear his thoughts as Kuraito and Jiraiya simply stared at him in disbelief. '_This can't possibly be..._'

"However, pervert..." Kuraito began, causing the other two to deadpan. "If you perform your 'research' while you're supposed to be training either one of us, I will notify every kunoichi in the village of your activities, location, and potential hiding spots." He crossed his arms and gave Jiraiya a display of the creepy smile he'd inherited from working with Ibiki and Anko. "Do we have an understanding?"

Jiraiya was sweating profusely as he gulped and nodded in affirmation. '_This kid should never meet Tsunade, ever..._'

At the same time, a busty blonde woman was currently competing in a game of chance when she suddenly sneezed violently, throwing the dice in her hand in a haphazard manner that resulted in her victory. As the woman rubbed her nose, she took account of her situation and began cheering, while another, younger, woman seated behind her began rubbing her temples as she tried to calm her mistress down.

Back at the waterfall, Jiraiya bit his thumb and performed several hand seals before yelling out "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" and slamming his hand down on the ground. In a massive explosion of smoke, an enormous toad appeared with a notably large scroll in its mouth. Jiraiya was perched on the toad's head in a cross-legged position. "Well, brats, you finally convinced me to teach you how to summon toads. This scroll is the summoning contract for all toads, and as such, is maintained by the current Toad Sage." The toad unrolled its tongue holding the scroll and set it down on the ground at Naruto and Kuraito's feet.

"I'll sign it!" Naruto yelled out excitedly, unrolling the scroll to reveal the names of the most recent people to sign the contract.

"Alright, the seals for the justu are I, Inu, Tori, Saru, Hitsuji." Jiraiya said as Naruto bit his thumb do draw the blood necessary for his signature.

Kuraito looked over his friend's shoulder, examining the names preceding where Naruto was about to sign his own. He saw the one just before Naruto's was a name that seemed vaguely familiar. He looked up at the sage. "Hey, Ero-Sennin, I'm not signing, as lightning and toads probably don't mix. But," He pointed at the name in the previous spot. "After your signature is a name that I recognize, but I can't place it. Who was Minato Namikaze?"

Naruto's head shot up as he stared at the sage, eager for the same information.

"Oh, yeah. My last student, that one." Jiraiya rubbed his chin. "It's no wonder his name is familiar to you." He grinned and looked both boys in the eye. "He was the Yondaime Hokage."

Both boys' eyes widened and their jaws dropped to the floor. They sounded off simultaneously. "NANI!"

"Yep, Minato was one of my only students. In fact, he was part of the only genin team assigned to me after the Second Great Ninja War." He seemed to be reminiscing silently following this.

Kuraito cleared his throat to catch the sage's attention. "While it is totally awesome that you trained Yondaime-sama, don't you have something for me to learn while Naruto is working on summoning?" He stopped his questioning as Jiraiya held out a slip of paper. Kuraito took the paper and looked at it for a second. "Okay, it's paper, what do you want me to do with it?" He looked at the paper again, examining it for a second before a rock collided with his head, drawing blood. He dropped the paper and grabbed his head in pain.

The storm overhead rumbled loudly before a large and powerful bolt of lightning struck Jiraiya, who had thrown the rock. Jiraiya fell over and the toad he'd been sitting on disappeared. The smoke drifting off Jiraiya's charred body caused Naruto to crack up.

"Uh, oops. Sorry, ero-sensei..." Kuraito rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

The next few hours following Jiraiya's incapacitation saw Naruto repeatedly practicing the Summoning Jutsu. Kuraito sat back and watched as Naruto tried and failed multiple times to funnel as much chakra into the technique as he could. He tried fiddling with his finer chakra control in his fingertips and started flexing his fingers individually and watching how they moved and tried picturing how the air around them would follow.

This combination or Naruto's efforts and Kuraito's ruminations continued for a short while until Jiraiya recovered. The sage pushed himself off the ground and proceeded to stomp towards the still-bored Kuraito. The blonde looked at the old man with minimal interest until he saw a glowing orb form in the man's hand. Kuraito's eyes widened as he jumped out of the way of Jiraiya's jab, which struck the tree he'd been sitting against.

"What in Kami's name are you doing?" Kuraito yelled as Jiraiya turned to face him again.

"You asked for something to do." The Toad Sage held out another slip of the paper to Kuraito. "Take that paper, place it between your hands, and direct chakra into it."

The stoic blonde stared at the paper, then looked back at the old man. "What will it do? It's just paper."

"And that's where you're wrong..." Jiraiya said as he began to explain the details of the chakra testing paper.

"If you have certain types of chakra, it will react in a certain way, get it?" Jiraiya asked as the blonde looked at the paper again

"Got it." Kuraito said as he blasted chakra from the hand holding the paper. It first split, then crumpled, and finally became wet. "Uh, it did three of the five, is that good?"

Jiraiya stared for a second at the nearly mangled pieces of chakra paper, slightly confused as to why the stoic blonde had three natures. He tried to determine any possible answers until he thoguht back to Kuraito's heritage. "Hehe, looks like you're a Stormweaver, gaki."


	14. The Opened Door

**A.N. I'm working on my own book ^-^ It should be done in about a year, work and this fic notwithstanding. To any who have been still reading this fic, I apologize if you think that Kuraito is severely overpowered and/or a Gary Stu. This "Stormweaver" business will be explained in more depth as the story continues, so please be patient.**

"Looks like you're a Stormweaver, gaki."

"There's that damn name again. Look, pervert, is there anything useful I can learn in the next month from this or not?" Kuraito demanded, becoming increasingly irate at what he percieved as the sage's attempts at evading his inevitable responsibility.

The toad sage crossed his arms, regarding the boy sternly. "You know how to use those swords you carry around, right?"

"Yeah, but I don't..." Kuraito began.

"I heard about your kenjutsu style that you developed in part when Hayate was training you." Jiraiya grinned. "But, you have a lightning affinity, like Minato did. Maybe you can make something out of that?"

"But I tried something like that against Neji. I mimicked his family taijutsu, but used lightning around my hands to do the same thing as the Jyuuken." Kuraito looked off towards Naruto, who was working hard at the Kuchiyose no Jutsu. "Naruto gets to learn one of the jutsu that Yondaime-sama used..."

"Well, I suppose there is something you can try to mimic..." Jiraiya mused. "What do you know about shunshin?"

"Is that how the jounin move so fast that it looks like they're disappearing and reappearing everywhere?" Kuraito asked. '_It was kinda useless when ANBU tried to catch Naruto last year after he mixed pink dye into their detergent._' "What about it?"

"Your family had their own special jutsu, which Minato studied and mimicked with seals. His jutsu was called the Hiraishin. Its principle was based on reverse summoning." Jiraiya explained. "He used that principle to duplicate the Eien clan's ability to travel nearly instantaneously on natural electrical currents in the air. Where shunshin is merely your entire body moving through air at extremely rapid speeds, the Hiraishin and your clan's technique dealt with moving the body into a secondary dimensional tunnel and coming out on the other side." As Jiraiya finished, he noticed that Kuraito's eyes had glazed over from lack of attention. '_I think I broke him._' He waved a hand in front of the Eien boy's face.

"You lost me at the electrical currents part..." Kuraito said, rubbing his temples. "What was my family's jutsu called anyway?"

Jiraiya took a more serious tone of voice as he said, "Kaminari Jigen."

"They called it 'lightning dimension'..." Kuraito repeated. "Seems a bit lame to call something that acts as borderline teleportation..."

Jiraiya deadpanned as he said, "Unfortunately, gaki, I can't demonstrate it. Not only was I never taught the technique, but it requires an unrivaled affinity for lightning to work." He pulled out a scroll and handed it to Kuraito. "Those are all the notes on the jutsu I found in your family's estate. I figured you'd need it someday."

" 'I'd need it someday?' When the hell did you meet me before yesterday, perv king?" Kuraito asked pointedly.

"Uh, I, ummm..." Jiraiya stammered as he stepped back slowly from the boy, whose eyes were beginning to glow. A bolt of lightning struck directly next to the sage's foot, despite the tall tree he was under. He fell backwards as he finally yelled out, "I was friends with your father!" He looked up to see a shocked look painted across Kuraito's face, a stream of lightning from the sky connected to his hand slowly dying away.

"You... what?" Kuraito finally said after several seconds of his stunned silence. "You knew about my family, you knew my father... AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME ANYTHING UNTIL NOW!" The blonde turned away and stalked away for a few steps. "I'm done with you for today. I'll see you tomorrow..." He walked away, throwing the scroll on the ground. "Maybe..."

"RrrrrraaAAAAGGGGHHH!" Kuraito yelled out as he slammed his fist into yet another tree, splitting it in half, sending splinters everywhere. '_I don't even know what to think of that man now. He knew about my past,_' Another tree destroyed. '_But he did nothing about my situation or try to apologize. He just cowered there like I was going to kill him..._' Kuraito stopped and pondered his actions. The last bolt he'd nearly hit Jiraiya with had incinerated part of the tree above them. '_I just wish the Watcher told me more about him. There's too many questions and no one who can or will answer them..._' He yelled in frustration again as he turned his fury to the cliffside nearby, smashing his fists into the rock until he started to see blood and feel bone snap. Even following this, he continued to assail the stone until it cracked from the raw force he was generating. The face of the rock finally split all the way to the top as Kuraito collapsed in exhaustion, his hands bleeding profusely, bone cracked and exposed to the open air.

Ino watched this whole display of rage and frustration from afar until Kuraito collapsed, at which point she rushed to his side. "Kuraito-kun! Your hands, they're..."

"I know, Ino-san..." Kuraito stared up at the sky, his icy blue eyes lost in thought as he pondered whether or not he should go to the hospital. He continued to do so until he felt a small arm lift him from the ground, his feet still dragging on the ground.

"Come on, Kuraito-kun, it's not polite to make a lady do all the work, so let's get you to the hospital." Ino looked a Kuraito with a sad smile, showing obvious worry for her crush.

"In my opinion, you should have handled the situation a bit better." Sarutobi said, shaking his head at Kuraito, who was stading before his desk, hands bandaged up.

"Hokage-jiji, you know how I handle shock by now." Kuraito cracked his knuckles loudly, keeping his fingers mobile to prevent any undue stiffness. "I'm still mad at the pervert..." He walked to one of the windows and sat on the sill, looking out to the village.

"He meant well, Kuraito-kun, but you must understand that Jiraiya is our mobile intelligence expert, he can't stay in the village at all times." The Sandaime Hokage walked up behind the boy, putting a hand on his shoulder, looking out the window with Kuraito. "The more important aspects of being a ninja are not always popular. We have duties that may keep us from things such as family or friends, but they must still be done."

"In thirteen years, he never once came to the village? He never looked for me?" The storm outside roiled as Kuraito became more irate. His eyes flashed white as lightning arced in the clouds above.

"You need answers, but the only way to get them is to forgive Jiraiya, if for a bit. Allow him to teach you, and maybe you'll get some answers from him along the way." Sarutobi walked back to his desk. "He should still be at the waterfall, training Naruto."

Kuraito stood in the window and looked at the old man. "Thanks, Hokage-jiji. I enjoyed the talk." He turned around to face Sarutobi. "By the way, Ero-sensei should be through your window again in a few hours. He hasn't received retribution for peeping again..." He jumped out the window towards the waterfalls. "Later, jiji!" He yelled as he left.

'_That boy will be quite a piece of work in the future..._' Sarutobi thought, about to return to his work. His head shot up suddenly, his eyes wide as he mumbled to himself. "Did he say he was going to send Jiraiya through the window again?"

"I suppose there's only one more way to help you access that second source of chakra..." Jiraiya sigh as he rubbed the back of his head.

"What's that, Ero-sennin?" Naruto asked excitedly.

Jiraiya shoved Naruto over the edge of the cliff. "Life or death situation, gaki!"

Kuraito showed up just as Naruto began screaming. "Kami damn you, Ero-sensei, what did you do this time?" He ran to the edge of the cliff and looked down.

"I just decided to help the gaki out a little bit." Jiraiya said simply, pulling out a scroll from his pouch. "This, however, is for you. One of the scrolls from your clan's archives."

Kuraito had a skeptical look on his face as he took the scroll. "And what exactly does it hold?"

"No idea, it has a blood seal on it." The sage replied.

The blonde looked at Jiraiya with a totally blank stare.

The sage rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Just swipe some of your blood on the seam, gaki."

Kuraito delivered a mock salute, "Right away, pervert." He bit his thumb, drawing blood, then swiped his thumb over the edge of the paper. The scroll opened and Kuraito unrolled it. He saw a long list of names of jutsu listed under a style called "Ranton", things that seemed to be Kage level jutsu. "Uh, pervert, what's elemental transformation?"


	15. Falling

_**A.N. Sorry for the extremely long stints between chapters. I've been working on another story. MahoganyJinx has also been on my case about getting the chapters out, but work does get in the way occasionally. Kuraito gets his jutsu now. Kaminari Jigen will be the only one he has for awhile, it will be Kuraito's main jutsu, like Kage Bunshin is for Naruto. I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, they all belong to Kishimoto-san. Kuraito Eien and his abilities/techniques are mine.**_

__"Uh, pervert, what's elemental transformation?"

"Oh, Kami, don't tell me the Academy doesn't even cover that anymore..."

A large cloud of smoke rose from the ravine, followed by a giant toad with a pipe in its mouth.

"HOLY FUCK!" Kuraito fell backwards and scrabbled away from the cliffside. "Ero-sensei, why is there a toad almost as big as the village here?"

"Hey, Gamabunta!" Jiraiya waved, smiling towards the summoned toad. "I see you and Naruto have become acquainted..." He was suddenly silenced as the giant toad jumped away before a huge bolt of lightning created a crater where he used to be.

"You should have warned me that we'd be near a Stormweaver, shrimp." Gamabunta said to Naruto.

"Hehe, sorry, Chief Toad. He only just discovered this today." Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head. "He zapped Ero-sennin a few times if it makes you feel better."

"HAHAHAHA!" The toad thundered. "That it does, shrimp. What's your name, kid?"

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the next Hokage!" Naruto beat his fist against his chest.

The chief toad looked down at the still-frightened Kuraito. "Kami, boy, don't look at me like I'm the Kyuubi. What's your name, little Eien boy?"

Kuraito stood, looking at the toad with wide eyes. "Kuraito. Uh, sorry about nearly frying you, toad-san."

The summon laughed. "Ah, this one has manners, it's almost unfortunate he can't summon toads, eh Jiraiya? Call me Gamabunta or Chief Toad, if you like."

Both Jiraiya and Naruto deadpanned. Kuraito just stared at the toad. "Okay, Chief. I'm gonna go practice my new jutsu, if that's fine with you."

* * *

><p><p>

"Raiton: Kaminari Jigen!" Kuraito shouted, ending on the last seal of the jutsu. He disappeared from the base of the waterfall and appeared where the next bolt of lightning struck at the top of the falls. He still couldn't do the jutsu without seals, but he was close. '_This would be so much cooler if I could control where the lightning would strike..._'

Jiraiya was watching from the trees nearby, observing the white flashes of electricity from the perfected lightning jutsu. He was taking notes on the speed of the travel. It appeared to be slightly faster than the Hiraishin already. The lightning struck before Kuraito would disappear, and as the bolt disappeared, the blonde would appear where it hit.

"Hey, Ero-sensei, that short burst in between locations looks strange. It's like I can see the electricity in people's bodies..." Kuraito mused.

"Can you do anything with it?" Jiraiya asked, looking up.

The blonde rubbed the back of his head. "Well, no, but..."

"Focus on the movement for now..." The sennin returned to taking notes as Kuraito disappeared again.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Naruto's screams echoed around the forested area near the falls as he rode on Gamabunta's back.

"Keep it up, shrimp! Or you'll be buying my sake for the next while!" Bunta said as he jumped again, attempting to dislodge the hyperactive, loudmouthed blonde, as per their bet.

Another bolt of lightning struck near the tree where Jiraiya was perched. "For Kami's sake, gaki, watch the destruction!"

"Quit complaining, pervert, or I'm sending you through Hokage-jiji's window again." Kuraito yelled back. "And don't think I can't make the shot from here."

* * *

><p><p>

The next two weeks passed without incident as the final exam approached. Kuraito almost never ran where he needed to go during the day, but he never used the Kaminari Jigen in public areas, always disappearing and reappearing in various alleyways. '_If I can use this during the finals without arousing suspicion, it could be useful._' He looked up to the overcast sky. '_I should really do something about this weather, but I don't know how..._'

"Hey, Kuraito-san." Shikamaru walked up behind his friend, staring up at the sky. "Wierd weather for Hi no Kuni, eh? Troublesome if you ask me."

"You would find a leaf blowing in the wind landing on your head to be troublesome." Kuraito deadpanned. "How's your training going?"

"You mean you've actually been training for this thing? I only agreed to go because Asuma-sensei asked my team." The notorious slacker glanced sidelong at his fellow genius.

The stoic blonde glanced at the lazy Nara, back up at the sky, then said, "You know, Shikamaru..."

Shikamaru looked at Kuraito, only to see Kuraito's hand moving at insane speeds toward his head. He was smacked upside the head with such force that he rolled down the street for several yards. He got up slowly, groaning as he stood. "What the hell was that for?" He yelled at Kuraito.

"You're fucking lazy, Nara. You and your dad both." Kuraito crossed his arms over his chest, looking at his friend irritably. "You know that you would have gone for the chance to become a chuunin. You would have done it no matter who asked you. Your laziness will always irritate me, but I know that it's a mask to hide your unbelievable intellect." He stalked towards the other genin, looking ready to hit him again. Instead, his gaze softened and he reached down to pull Shikamaru up. "You don't always need to hide your intelligence, baka. You can use it now. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"

"They could put me in charge of a team..." Shikamaru muttered, only the be smacked upside the head again.

"Lazy baka..." Kuraito said, walking away. "You should know, by the way, that you're not the only one hiding his full abilities..."

* * *

><p><p>

The day of the final exam arrived to find Kuraito sleeping on the roof of the arena, waiting for everyone else to arrive. He looked down, noting that Naruto and Sasuke had not arrived yet. He heard a rumbling in the distance and saw a massive dust cloud approaching. Amidst the rumbling, Kuraito could make out the sound of Naruto's screaming.

'_Now he shows up? What could possibly make him scream like that..._' Kuraito mused, jumping down from the roof. He landed behind the proctor, surprised to see it wasn't his sensei. "Uh, Genma-san, where's sensei?"

Genma looked at Kuraito sadly, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I have some bad news, Raito-san..."

Kuraito looked at Genma for a second before his eyes went wide and he backed away, tears starting to form in his eyes. "No, it's not possible..." He dropped to his knees. "Not Hayate-sensei..." The tears started to flow, but he choked down his emotions. "He wouldn't want me to lose focus,right?" The clouds overhead rumbled and rain began to fall. Kuraito's eyes began to glow. "I'm still going to kill whoever is responsible for his death..." Lightning cracked through the clouds, exploding through the sky with a resounding crash.

Naruto stumbled through the door, panting from exhaustion. "Sorry about that, I was just being chased by a stampede and... OW!" He yelled in pain as Kuraito hit him on the top of his head, leaving a small welt.

"As plausible as that may be, we have things to do, asses to kick and the like." Kuraito said as he dragged his best friend to the line. "Genma-san, shouldn't we begin?"

"Very well, the first match is between Hinata Hyuuga and Kuraito Eien." Genma said.

"Fuck!" Kuraito yelled to the sky, blocked out by a loud peal of thunder. "I don't want to fight Hinata-chan..."

"I-is there something wrong with fighting m-me, Kuraito-kun?" Hinata asked timidly, seeming to feel as if she did something wrong.

"No, Hinata-chan, I just don't want to fight you..." Kuraito looked down shamefully. "You could actually beat me..."

Hinata seemed to perk up at this, growing more confident. "Y-you mean it?"

"I... uh... um..." Kuraito stuttered, not noticing that everyone else had moved from the fighting space.

"Begin!" Genma said, jumping away.

Kuraito's eyes widened. "What?" He was slammed in the chest by Hinata as she immediately went on the offensive. '_Damn, she needs to hook up with Naruto instead. She'd be able to keep him out of trouble, I bet..._' He grinned as he heard Naruto sneeze loudly up in the observation space.

"I'm sorry, Kuraito-san, but I don't want to lose." Hinata said, dropping into the Jyuuken stance.

Kuraito dropped into an identical stance, charging his hands with lightning chakra. "I don't think that's going to work, Hinata-san." His voice became deeper and more controlled. "I designed this specifically to fight against Neji, but your style isn't like his, now is it.."

Hinata lunged, her strikes moving with a fluidity that Kuraito countered with the raw speed from his lightning chakra. The level of speed displayed by the two genin astonished the spectators and the Kage alike. Where Hinata would strike, Kuraito would counter instantly. Then, Hinata did something that Kuraito was definitely not expecting.

" Shugohakke Rokujūyon Shō." She started creating needles of chakra that became visible as she moved at blinding speeds, creating a small sectioned dome of chakra around her small frame. Kuraito jumped back, amazed at the technique the Hyuuga heiress had just performed.

"Neat trick, there, Hinata-san." Kuraito said, grinning. "But you're not the only one who was learning new jutsu for the last month. He disappeared in a white flash and reappeared behind Hinata, kunai against her throat. "Sorry I have to end this so quickly."

Hinata smiled. "And I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I won't give up that easily." She blasted chakra from several tenketsu in her back, and from her neck, forcing Kuraito's hand to move away from her throat and letting her put some space in between herself and the Eien boy.

"Interesting..." Kuraito smirked, drawing two bokken that he'd brought as a substitute for his usual swords. "I'm sorry it's come to this, Hinata-san, but I don't want to lose." He dropped into his modified Jyuuken stance again. "Sen Ha no Mai: Saishou no Hikari." The bokken began to glow, the chakra conductive cores charged with lightning chakra. "Kaishi." Kuraito disappeared, no flash indicating his position, until he reappeared behind Hinata. He landed flurry after flurry of strikes, attatcking the Hyuuga girl's pressure points at blinding speed. The sound of wood hitting flesh echoed throughout the arena, as Kuraito was suppressing the use of his Muraigan. He didn't want to rely on his ability to see the future, not if it meant being unable to think of his own strategies and tactics in battle.

Hinata coughed as she was forced to her knees by Kuraito's onslaguht. He stopped in front of her, his eyes flashing blue occasionally. "You studied our taijutsu?"

"No, just the targets of the Jyuuken." Kuraito raised one bokken. "Goodnight, Hinata-san." He brought the handle down on a pressure point on the back of her neck. "I guess I win, eh, Genma-san?"

"Winner, Kuraito Eien. Can we get a medic down here?" Genma called out.


	16. Engine of Death

"Winner, Kuraito Eien. Can we get a medic down here?"

Kuraito watched as med-nin carried the Hyuuga princess off the field, then turned away and walked to a point closer to the observation deck. He then used _Kaminari Jigen_ to teleport up to the balcony. This time, there was no lightning strike, though the only people to notice this difference were the Hokage and Jiraiya, the latter of which was perched on the roof of the stadium perimeter wall.

Everyone in the observation space jumped away in surprise as soon as a white and blue flash appeared in their area. Every shinobi around the flash, with the exception of Naruto, had at least one weapon drawn.

"You're all certainly an excitable bunch, aren't you?" Kuraito said when the after-effects of his technique faded, revealing the stoic blonde, whose eyes were glowing from the Muraigan's activation. He leaned to the left, perplexing every other genin until a kunai that appeared to have been thrown from the stands embedded itself in the wall behind Kankuro. "I should probably deter that Iwa ninja from doing that again,_ ne_?" Another blue flash appeared in the room, followed immediately by a flash on the other side of the arena.

Kuraito perched on top of the Iwa shinobi's head, poking him in the forehead. His expression was one of irritation, nearly identical to that of the jounin observing this bout of antics. "You should really try to identify your target before you attack it." Kuraito dropped down into the empty seat next to the other ninja. The Iwa jounin looked as if he was about to attack again until his eyes widened. He appeared to be incapable of moving.

"I don't have a death wish," Kuraito raised the hand he'd been poking the other chinobi with. It was sparking with several blue bolts of electricity. "_Kaminari Jigen_ allows me to see and manipulate the electricity of anyone I can see when I'm phasing in and out."

The Iwa nin's eyes widened further as he spoke. "You are the child of the Yellow Flash?" He was finally able to move enough to draw a kunai. "I will kill you for the honor of… urk!" He fell silent as Kuraito slammed a fist into his stomach.

"Hey, _baka_." Kuraito said sharply, glaring at the jounin and producing far more killer intent that anyone thought possible for a genin. "In case you weren't paying any attention," He grabbed the ninja by the throat. "My name is Eien, not Namikaze. You can also take note that just because the Yondaime had a technique like mine, doesn't mean it was the same."

Several whispers started around the pair. Ocassional bits of "Shadow Dancer" and "Time Flash" could be heard. Kuraito simply stood and phased back to the observation deck and sat down roughly, focusing on the field.

Genma cleared his throat and spoke again, drawing the attention of all but the multiple Iwa shinobi who were still focused on Kuraito. "The next fight will be between Naruto Uzumaki and…" A Konoha jounin appeared next to Genma and whispered in his ear. His apparent shock was not lost on the audience as he looked back up to the observation deck, catching Kuraito's attention. The Eien boy thought for a minute about why the jounin would be staring at him so intently.

"Oh, fuck all nuts…" Kuraito muttered as he sat back down.

Genma cleared his throat loudly to catch the attention of the spectators in the arena. "Due to a special ruling, the genin Shikamaru Nara will be participating in the next match. Will he and Sabaku no Temari please come down here."

A series of 'boo's and other signs of displeasure could be heard from the civilians in the stands, which was quickly silenced as every one of them felt the killer intent of the nearby ANBU as well as Kuraito's own aura of displeasure caused many of them to lose the ability to speak.

Shikamaru was apparently in a less than motivated mood due to the booing from the other spectators. He continued to hesitate until he felt a presence similar to the feeling of death appeared behind him. Kuraito's eyes were shadowed, but still glowing their eerie blue as he glared at the lazy Nara. Shikamaru gulped nervously and slowly walked to the edge of the balcony in front of the seats and promptly jumped off to land at the edge of the arena, intent on escaping the Shadow Demon of Konoha.

Temari looked on at the events unfolding, then turned around to see Kuraito still sitting on the bench as before. She winked at him, causing the normally stoic blonde to blush and look away as she jumped on her fan and caused a massive whirlwind to appear, allowing her to slowly drift down to the ground.

"Begin." Was all Genma said as the two genin stopped in the center of the arena. Neither genin moved for several seconds, as both appeared to be sizing up their opponent and formulating strategies. This continued until a massive peal of thunder sounded overhead, followed by a series of shocked screams from the stands. The drawn out series of attacks continued until Shikamaru captured Temari in his shadow. Kuraito considered forcing a flash of lightning to disrupt the other genin's jutsu, but decided against it, choosing instead to begin taking a nap.

As Kuraito drifted into sleep, he realized that his chakra was flaring itself again. He groaned mentally as he entered the domain of the Watcher yet again.

"_We really need to stop meeting like this." Kuraito said to the ancient being._

_The Watcher chuckled to himself, shaking his head. "If you could control when your energy flares up, you could control when you speak to me. As it stands, young Eien, I must speak to you of this ability you have discovered." He waved a hand in the air, summoning what __appeared to be a scroll. "__**Kaminari Jigen**__ is not a normal ability. It is the basis for the ultimate technique your family possessed. Time travel was in fact your clan's specialty. Having been gifted with the eyes and memory necessary to enable practical use of time travel, your clan's first head, Kora Eien, went back in time to join the Sage of Six Paths. The Sage had just sealed the Juubi in himself. Lady Kora met him as he was teaching a village about the concept of Chakra. Her brusque and mildly violent demeanor intrigued him. She, like yourself, was a Stormweaver and a Lightning Runner. She had vowed to never involve herself with any of the men she knew in her own time, but didn't realize she would be assigned to learn about the history of the world's greatest events."_

"_So, Grandma Kora fell in love with the Sage?" Kuraito asked._

_The Watcher deadpanned. "Aren't you observant… Yes, Kora didn't mean for it to happen, but she fell in love with the Sage of Six Paths, but her first two sons, twins, did not inherit her Muraigan. These were the twins of legend, one who would be gifted with the Sage's eyes, the other with his body. The Sage had a third child a few years before his death, Reina Eien. She would be the first clan head of the Eien for the years to come. Your clan fell into the shadows of anonymity after a few generations due to their inherent lack of a desire to be famous."_

"_They would appear very few times after the death of the Sage and the birth of the Bijuu. The first time in centuries would be at the birth of the alliance between Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, descendants of the firstborn of the Sage. This alliance was absent one line of descendants, the seal masters of the Elemental Nations: the Uzumaki." Kuraito's eyes widened at this. "Ah, so you didn't know your best friend was from an illustrious clan? This fails to surprise me. Your village ignores its roots far more often than it should. I am severely disappointed in the other bout of foolishness that the civilians displayed and the blind ignorance that the shinobi are guilty of on the same count."_

_Kuraito began to fume lightly. "What cryptic things do you speak of, spirit? You say that the civilians are fools and the shinobi are ignorant. Yet, you fail to explain yourself fully." Kuraito felt the tug on his consciousness and was vaguely aware of the sounds of battle around him. "We will speak of this later, old man."_

"_I'm sure we will, young Kuraito. 5 o' clock high, seven feet. I recommend you unseal your real weapons now."_

Kuraito jumped away as several kunai embedded themselves where his head used to be. As he finished his backflip, he saw the Iwa jounin from earlier. "I see you found an opportunity to exact revenge on someone who made a fool of you"

The jounin growled in frustration. "That's not it at all," He snapped. "You are obviously the child of the Yellow Flash. I will honor our fallen men by killing you without mercy!" The man brought his kunai down in an attempt to impale Kuraito.

Kuraito disappeared and reappeared behind the jounin. "My name is Kuraito Eien, and I am the Shadow Dancer of Konoha. I am a shinobi of the highest caliber in my generation. I do not like you, I will not show you mercy, and I will leave nothing behind." Kuraito unsealed his katanas and held them in the _Sen Ha no Mai_ stance. "You have five minutes to leave my sight before I leave pieces of you all over this village." He released every ounce of killer intent that he could muster, nearly knocking the jounin unconscious.

The Iwa jounin had no chance against the same killer intent level Kuraito had only once used against Orochimaru. His reaction was not only to run away, but to soil himself while doing so.

'_There's one down, all of these Oto nin to go._' Kuraito thought, charging chakra into his legs and eyes. "Never thought I'd use this again… _Hogo-sha_!" The blonde's eyes turned pure white and his icy blue and white chakra radiated from his body. "Hey, Oto!" Kuraito yelled, drawing the attention of every one of the Oto shinobi in the arena, totaling to about fifty. "Come and get some!" Kuraito blasted chakra into his swords, channeling lightning in the air to follow his movements. He phased down to the arena floor, walking slowly. Each step Kuraito took was preceded by a stream of lightning travelling down to his swords and lancing out to split part of the ground beside him. He stopped several feet away from the Oto squads.

"He's just a kid with a flashy jutsu!" One chuunin shouted, riling up the others near him.

Another grew bold and followed his comrade by saying, "Yeah, he's just some little genin way over his head."

Multiple murmurings and exclamations to the same effect continued until Kuraito dropped into his stance. "I don't suppose you gentlemen would be inclined to leave peacefully?"

The response of laughter and drawn weapons was signal enough for the stoic genin. He signaled to Kakashi and Gai to hold off the others in the stands.

"_Sen Ha no Mai: Saisho no Hikari._" Kuraito crouched slightly, his arms outstretched, swords extending in opposite directions. "I get to try something new on you all today."

"What could one brat like you want to 'test' on several squads of skilled shinobi?" The first one piped up again before Kuraito disappeared. A split second passed before Kuraito appeared again on the other side of the mass of Oto shinobi. The jounin's head promptly began to slide from his shoulders, followed by a massive spray of blood. The group's laughter stopped as soon as they turned around to see Kuraito with his sword still in the end of his slash. He turned around and enacted what would go down in the history books as the legendary "Death's Grin", allowing insanity to take hold as he licked his sword of almost all of the blood from his attack.

"_Sen Ha no Mai: Kaishi._ I hope the Shinigami shows you mercy in the next world, because there won't be anything left of you for this one to recognize as human." Kuraito uttered these last words before a low guttural noise escaped his noise, followed shortly by a low chuckle. This chuckle evolved into a laugh, and the laugh quickly degraded into a madman's cackle of murderous glee. "I'm gonna kill you all!" Kuraito phased in and out of view. His blades flashed so often, that the observing jounin thought he was using lightning as his swords. This was not very far from the truth. Kuraito was using an advanced form of elemental manipulation by charging his swords with his potent lightning chakra. The resulting carnage caused all but a few of the Konoha and Oto shinobi to look away in fear and disgust.

Massive amounts of mist-like blood permeated the air around where the Oto elite squads used to be. Kuraito stood in the middle of the mass, bodies and pieces of bodies surrounding him as he was literally bathed in blood. He looked suddenly to the sky, spread his arms and screamed to the Heavens, a defiance to Kami herself, displaying his raw power as a castle of lightning formed around him from a single massive bolt.

It took all of the self-control of every ninja in the vicinity to not simply run away, including the two ninja holding up a barrier for Orochimaru as the Snake Sannin fought the Sandaime, unknown to Kuraito. Tayuya, the only female of the Sound Four, looked at the blonde with an almost animalistic desire in her eyes.

Kuraito was pulled from his blood rage as he sensed a familiar sensation that was only ever exuded by one certain Yamanaka that he knew was unconscious. He tracked the origin of the feeling of rabid fangirl desire to a red-haired girl his age holding up part of what appear to be a massive barrier containing a forest on the roof of where the Hokage stand used to be. Kuraito focused, letting his Hogo-sha aura drop. He saw her wave in a semi-seductive manner, causing him to blush slightly. '_She's cute, but what is she doing…_'

Kuraito phased up to the roof, appearing next to twenty ANBU that were trying to break through the barrier. "You all are doing it wrong." Kuraito drew out his swords and stabbed them into the tile just in front of the barrier, crossing the blades. "I'd move back if I wanted to live, Rat-san." Kuraito sat down in a meditative stance, reaching out to the storm as the scrolls Jiraiya explained the process of. He felt the current near him, drawn to three distinct individuals in the reach of the storm. One, he identified as Sasuke, the next as Kakashi, and the core of the storm, himself. He focused instead on the vicinity of his own chakra signature. He reached his arms out and gripped the handles of his swords tightly, preparing for his most powerful jutsu yet. He performed over a dozen seals, then blasted chakra into his swords, maintaining a current as he flipped away from ground zero.

"_Kami no Ken_!" Kuraito yelled, forming a final rooster seal as the sky split open, unleashing the largest bolt of lightning any of the ninja had ever seen. The bolt struck the swords, causing the focal point of the jutsu, the cross of the blades to glow with chakra and stored lightning. Kuraito ran as fast as he could, pointing his first two fingers on both hands, calling down lightning into his outstretched left hand and redirecting it through his chakra coils into his right index and middle fingers, which were pointed at the blades' cross. "_Sen Ha no Mai: Saishuu-Tekina Yaoke!_" The bolt of lightning became an annihilating beam of lightning nature chakra that shattered a small section of the barrier, allowing Kuraito to slip through, grabbing his swords before the barrier resealed itself.

"What the hell was that?" A feminine voice yelled to his left. "You could have killed us all you fucking retard!"

Kuraito walked up to the red-headed girl, whom he identified as his fangirl from earlier. "Listen hear, you ear-bleeding bitch, I don't need you or anyone else giving me shit about killing everyone." He pointed down to the arena floor, where the blood was beginning to be washed away. "I fucked up fifty of your best in less than a minute, so get off my case!" He turned around and sat against one of the trees.

"Will you go out with me?" Was all the red head could ask when she recovered from her shock.

" No, not unless you defect from Oto and swear that Orochimaru is a snake-like, evil, twisted pedophile that wants to do nothing but take over the world because he's a little mad at jiji." Kuraito snapped, slightly irritable from his lack of energy. He leaned against the tree and swore that he felt something familiar about it.

"How…?" The girl began.

Kuraito cut her off almost instantly. "Fuck you, that's how. Now, tell me where your master is." (_**A.N. This is the closest I've come to a full on lemon scene, forgive any of my misconceptions **_ Kuraito then stopped and sniffed the air, noting a slight sweetness to the air. The scent was akin to honey, but much more appealing. '_Oh, fuck…_'

The red head started looking extremely warm as she looked at Kuraito very differently. "My name's Tayuya, what's your name, sexy?"

'_She gets off on guys who have a pair?_' Kuraito shrugged, "What's it to you?" He figured if he could get this girl, Tayuya, as she named herself, distracted enough, then she would drop her part of the barrier.

"Oh, yes, be mysterious! I like the chance to interrogate a man for what he knows." Tayuya finally lost her self-control and proceeded to rub herself between her legs, dropping the barrier and walking towards Kuraito with a notable sway in her hips. "I think you'd better fucking restrain me, that way we can be a bit," She threw herself onto Kuraito, dousing him in the scent of her arousal. "I've been a really bad girl, you should fuck the bad right out of me…"

'_I'm either having a very vivid fantasy driven by hanging out with Ero-sensei for so long, because this is just like something out of one of his books._' Kuraito draped his hands over the girl's chest, reaching his left down to rub her some more.'_Or, as unlikely and frightening as it is, this girl is actually this turned on by me. I'm fascinated either way, so I'm gonna roll with it._' He leaned to whisper in the girl's ears. "Oh, Lady Tayuya, for such a beautiful woman, your tongue is marred by the foul language we men developed in our crass, savage ways. We are incapable of civil thoughts, so we depend on women, such as yourself, to be the firm hand that keeps us in line." '_Yep, right out of an Icha-Icha novel._"

Tayuya leaned back into Kuraito's embrace, ignoring her teammates' yelling and the droves of ANBU rushing by. This same engine of death that had annihilated her comrades and wrought unmatched destruction was treating her like a privileged princess. Even as a kunoichi, she desired the attentions of men, but was unable to express herself in any way but vulgarity and abrasiveness. "You treat all the bitches you meet like this?"

"Not in the slightest." Kuraito said, eliciting a short look from the redhead. "I treat beautiful women like this. You, however, are special..."

"How so?" Tayuya attempted to shift, only to discover her hand were bound, restricting her movement. "You fucking little asshole! I'll chop your balls off and shove them down your throat!"

"Kinda difficult to manage that with your hands bound, eh, Tayuya-san?" Kuraito smirked, holding the key to the seal he'd placed on her. "I win, milady. Though I suppose I have a snake to eviscerate. I'll come back for you when I kill your master."


	17. Divinity Is Overrated

_**AN: After much work and an unholy amount of reworking of details, we have a new chapter. I deeply apologize for making Kuraito into a "Gary Stu" character, but he won't be staying in this timeline for long. I'm considering having his time travel ability kick in after he meets Tsunade. Opinios will be greatly appreciated. **__**I don't own Naruto or any of its characters; they all belong to Kishimoto-san. Kuraito Eien and his abilities/techniques are mine.**_

"I'll come back for you when I kill your master."

Kuraito stalked towards where he heard the Hokage and Sannin fighting. He drew both swords and began opening up his chakra coils to their maximum. As the life energy surged through his body, Kuraito channeled as much as he could to his arms, changing it to his tri-elemental Ranton chakra. His katanas began to thrum with massive amounts of power as pure storm energy flowed through the metal.

As he broke into the space where Orochimaru and the Sandaime were fighting, Kuraito's bloodlust began to rise. He saw the old man impaled on a glowing sword while holding Orochimaru by the shoulders, a look of intense focus and pain painted across his visage. Kuraito activated Hogo-sha. "**Orochimaru...**" Kuraito let his voice deepen into a range similar to the demonic genjutsu he'd placed the snake Sannin under when they fought before. "**Why is there a sword through ojii-san's back, and why are you still in Konoha?**" The genin's glowing white eyes bored into Orochimaru, causing the rouge ninja to wince with every step that Kuraito took in his direction. Kuraito disappeared then reappeared at the Hokage's side. He looked to the old man again and saw a giant, indistinct figure behind his teacher. It looked at Kuraito and nodded curtly. "**Uhhh...**"

"You damned brat, how did you get in?" Orochimaru almost screamed, quivering as Kuraito looked at him.

"**I walked in.**" Kuraito said, raising his sword high, ready to decapitate the Sannin before being kicked away by another person. "**What in Kami's name just hit me?**" He looked to his right as he stood. The Eien boy's eyes widened as he recognized the Shodaime Hokage. "**Shodai-sama? Aren't you…?**"

"Yes, young Eien boy, I was dead." The old Hokage said, a look of dejection painted across his face. "But my student's pupil saw fit to raise myself and my brother, as well as one of your clan, to fight Sarutobi." He regarded the blonde, examining him closely before speaking again. "You look very much like my granddaughter…"

"**Sorry to interrupt you, Hokage-sama, but I have to decapitate a snake. I'll be back in a second.**" Kuraito phased into _Kaminari Jigen_ and approached Orochimaru, preparing to strike at the Sannin's brain stem, when he was yanked away from the rogue ninja yet again. "**What in Kami's name?**" Kuraito turned around to face in the direction of whatever pulled him from his target. He was faced with a very tall man with glowing blue eyes and long pale blonde hair pulled into a ponytail. "**You pulled me out? How?**"

The man's expression shifted to a blatant mask of shock. He walked slowly towards Kuraito, making no aggressive motions. Nevertheless, the young Eien crouched into a fighting stance. "Kuraito…" The man stretched out his hand to touch the boy's face. Kuraito flinched at the contact, but otherwise made no movements. "It is you, Kuraito!" The man pulled Kuraito into a tight embrace. Kuraito felt something warm and wet down his back and realized the man was crying. "I never thought I'd see you again. You've grown into a fine young shinobi. And you were graced with the _Hogo-sha_, as I knew it would be."

"**Pardon my pointedness, sir, but who the hell are you and why are you crying on my back?**" Kuraito pushed the man away a short distance. He examined that man's facial features more closely than before. It didn't take long before the connection was made. "**Kami help me, are you…?**"

"Good to see the clan's brains weren't wasted. Yes, son, it's me. I'm your father, Jikoku Eien." The man, now identified as Jikoku, stepped away from Kuraito. "I am sorry, son, that I couldn't be there for you. I'm also sorry that I won't be able to tell you about how our clan was slaughtered."

"**Why not, Otou-san?**" Kuraito's eyes began to water. "**I just got to meet you, now you say that we don't have time for question's that have been bothering me since I heard that I was part of a clan.**" His fists tightened and the tears began to flow. Overhead, the clouds began to pour down rain.

"A Lightning Runner and a Stormweaver, just like our clan's founder. I'm sorry, Kuraito, but I'm under the control of that snake, Orochimaru. I'm also a Lightning Runner, so you won't be able to simply phase out and kill him." Jikoku reached back and pointed at his neck. "There's a seal in my body controlling me and keeping me bound to this body. Destroy it and you may have a chance. But I warn you, son." Jikoku phased out and reappeared behind Kuraito. "I can't hold back."

Kuraito phased out and started forcing his storm to strike at the weakened barrier. He allowed his rage to fuel the thunderstorm and turned it into a typhoon. Jikoku looked at his son with pride as he realized just how strong the Eien's legacy had become.

"**It was nice meeting you, tou-san. But, as you said, I won't be able to kill snake breath with you pulling me out of **_**Kaminari Jigen**_**. **_**Sen Ha no Mai: Batsu**_**.**" Kuraito's swords appeared to phase in and out of reality as he swung them in a flowing motion to match his weaker water affinity. "**Divinity is overrated… Rest in peace, father.**" In one flowing motion, Kuraito removed Jikoku's head, grabbed the seal binding his soul to the plane of the living, then channeled wind chakra into his hand to tear the seal to shreds.

Jikoku's face was fixed in a smile as his body crumbled to dust, revealing the remains of one of the Oto nin from earlier in the exams. '_Sick bastard uses the bodies of the dead for his own twisted jutsu…_' Kuraito strode back towards where Orochimaru and the Third still fought. "**Death before dishonor,**" He swept out one sword to his right. "**Honor above all.**" He swept the other sword out, so that both pointed directly away from his body. "**Kami's call is most sonorous, but to her will, we must fall.**" Kuraito crossed the blades and enacted his most powerful jutsu yet. "_**Sen Ha no Mai: **__**Shikei Shikkō Hito no Jūjika**_**.**" (_**A.N. Executioner's Cross. Epic, no?**_)

Kuraito's swords were blasted with pure chakra, no elemental transformation applied. He accelerated the cycling of the chakra in his body and pumped even more into the swords until they glowed pure white. He shunshin'd behind the Snake Sannin, who was cackling at the Third, who was trapped in combat with his predecessor's. "**I'll have your head now, Orochimaru of the Sannin.**"

Orochimaru turned around rapidly, ready to strike until he realized the Leaf's Shadow Dancer was behind him yet again. "I will not be intimidated by you again, boy!" The Sannin swung at Kuraito, but was met with at wall of pure force. "What is this? What jutsu could stop someone with pure force?!"

"_**Hogo-sha**_**.**" Kuraito stated simply. "**Its name has a double meaning. It is meant to be used to protect others, but it will in turn protect the user from any direct physical harm. Weapons and fists cannot touch me.**" He raised the swords again, causing the roiling storm overhead to start spitting lightning. "**Let's finish this game, snake breath.**"

"Very well, child. Then I will take you for my research into jutsu. You will never touch me in a straight fight as we are now." The Sannin tilted his head back and began to gag. The blade of a long sword began to rise from his mouth, causing Kuraito to start losing control of his stomach. "Aww, can't handle a little technique that I use to hide my sword? Then you won't have an easy time when my Kusanagi cuts you!"

Kuraito identified the sword as the same one as Sarutobi had been impaled on. Noting this, he looked for the old man, only to spot his dying form, several feet away. At this sight, Kuraito's angry expression went cold and emotionless. As this happened, the air around the two began to drop rapidly in temperature. "_**Shijima no Arashi.**_" The sky split open with so much lightning that the thunder that followed it blocked out all sound. Kuraito was, unfortunately, blacked out from shock. Instead, the Watcher had taken control of Kuraito's body to reap justice as he saw fit. The execution of Orochimaru had been scheduled and sealed when Hiruzen Sarutobi, Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure, had perished.

Naruto, Sakura, and Shikamaru sped towards where they'd seen the Suna genin run when they felt a wave of sickening killer intent. Naruto recognized it as Kuraito's signature, but different. It rang with notes of sorrow and murderous rage, like the Kyuubi, but not as primal.

Sakura shuddered, slowing a bit to compensate for her nausea. "What is that?" She said quietly. "It feels so evil…"

Shikamaru was also feeling unwell. "I don't know, but I feel bad for whoever is on the receiving end of it." The lazy genin visibly shuddered and pressed on towards their objective.

Naruto, however, was quiet, pensive and appeared to be more focused on his friend's obvious plight. Kuraito was a very self-contained individual, prone to bluntly pointing out facts without being unduly rude. He hid his emotions behind a mask of quiet irritation and periodic bouts of prankster behavior. To have his emotions explode with enough force to be felt miles from the village was a very bad thing.

"I just hope he doesn't destroy the village…" Naruto said as they finally reached Sasuke.

"_**Ere the sorrow rises, the gods of time weep, a tide ebbs to draw out the poison. I stand a mere pawn in this game, yet I am king and knight as well**_." Kuraito began to speak in a manner that Orochimaru could not follow. Words of prophecy spilled from the Eien boy's mouth like a river. The Watcher yanked Kuraito's mind back to the realm of consciousness before retreating back into his pocket dimension.

"What nonsense do you spew, boy?" Orochimaru screamed past his sword. "Have you gone crazy simply because I killed the old man?" The sannin fell silen as he felt a spike of killer intent directed at his heart.

"**Those who admit their guilt,**" Kuraito said as he glared at Orochimaru. "**Shall still be judged for their crimes!**_** Sen Ha no Mai: Batsu**_**!**" Kuraito drew a massive nodachi from a sealing scroll in his pouch, using some of Sarutobi's spilled blood to unlock it. He held the cavalry sword with one hand and swung it back to prepare his strike. "**Have fun in Yami's embrace, scum.**" Kuraito struck true, decapitating Orochimaru, the chakra from his strike incinerating what was left of his body. Kuraito spat on the ashes left from the traitorous sannin's demise. "**And good riddance to it all.**"

The Eien boy turned away and stalked off, not noticing the small white snake slithering out of the ashes and away toward the forest.

Kuraito walked out of the forest, a melancholy expression across his face as he carried the body of the Sandaime to the Anbu team. Tears ran down the Eien boy's face, signifying his obvious loss of control. Kuraito had released _**Hogo-sha**_, bringing down the sheer amount of power he'd been releasing. He stepped slowly, not wanting his legs to give out from fatigue.

"Shadow Dancer, what…?" One of the Anbu asked before stopping in realization.

"No..." Another said. The battles around Konoha were falling silent as the Oto aggressors were neutralized. Kuraito dropped to his knees and set Sarutobi's body down. The storm overhead fell quiet and Kuraito performed a series of hands seals. "What are you doing?"

"Sending Sansaime-sama off in the Eien fashion." He performed the last seal "_**Kami no Suiton: Tengoku no Namida**_." The clouds began to lightly pour rain, glowing blue as the drops hit the ground. "I'm going to go to the Hokage Mountain. I'll be back in a few hours."


	18. Taking Out Some Trash

_**A.N. I apologize to all of you faithful readers for the long wait. The writer's block demons decided to camp out around me for the last month. My girlfriend finally got on my case about updating. So, here's to you. I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, they all belong to Kishimoto-san. Kuraito Eien and his abilities/techniques are mine.**_

Kuraito disappeared again in a blue flash, reappearing behind Kisame. "Now, fishstick, you and I have unfinished business. Let's take this outside, shall we?" Kuraito grabbed Kisame and us _Kaminari Jigen _to phase out of the building to a field nearly a kilometer away from the hotel and any other civilian buildings. As he reappeared in the field, Kuraito let Kisame go, jumping away several meters. "We're in my turf, now, swordsman."

Kisame had dropped Samehada and was currently kneeled on the ground, retching from his first experience with anything akin to a teleportation jutsu. As he recovered and stood up, he saw that Kuraito had sat down on a rock nearby and pulled out a book. The rogue Kiri nin became infuriated, picked up Samehada again, and charged at the boy. "You dare mock me, kid?" He swung at Kuraito, only for his blow to be stopped by the Eien heir's seemingly bare hand.

"Do you mind? I'm reading up on the importance of supply distribution and overall group morale." Kuraito closed the book and put it away, looking at the surprised Kisame. "Oh, I suppose I owe you a bit of an explanation?"

Kisame jumped away, glaring at the boy. "You couldn't have stopped that blow bare handed. Samehada would have torn your hand to shreds!" The sword was wriggling in Kisame's hands, as if it was just as surprised as its master.

"Let me formally introduce myself, then, fishstick. You didn't pay attention to Itachi, did you?" Kuraito stood and drew his nodachi, holding it in a low one-handed ready position at his side. "My name is Kuraito Eien, genin of Konohagakure, apprentice to Ibiki Morino and former apprentice of Hayate Gekkou. I have been labeled as a Stormweaver and Lightning Dancer, titles of my long dead clan. I am also the holder of the title Shadow Dancer, as given by the Konoha ANBU." Kuraito began swinging his sword around, warming himself up. "I am also _Shijima no Arashi_, the shinobi who bring balance to the world, be it by force or diplomacy."

"You talk big, but can you back it up with skill?" Kisame readied himself while Kuraito did the same. "I doubt a runt like you can put up a fight worthy of all your boasting."

Kuraito stopped in his tracks, a tick mark developing on his head. "Did you just call me a 'runt'?" The air began to become thick and the storm overhead picked up intensity. Lightning crackled in the clouds, arcing and lighting up the whole area. "I'm not short, fishstick!" Kuraito swung his sword in a wide arc, lightning crashing down to charge the blade. "I just haven't hit my growth spurt!" The sword made contact with the ground, lightning splitting the ground open in a line towards Kisame, who promptly soiled himself before jumping out of the way.

"You'll hurt yourself with jutsu you can't control, shrimp!" Kisame swung Samehada, water materializing and shooting out at Kuraito in a crescent shape. "But if you want to play with the elements, then have it your way!"

Kuraito smacked the water aside with his lightning charged hand. "You think I can't control this jutsu, fishstick?" Kuraito dropped into his _Sen Ha no Mai_ stance, the nodachi's blade poised over Kuraito's body, the point directed towards Kisame. "I invented it, genius." Kuraito called down more lightning before using _Kaminari Jigen_ to phase behind Kisame and swing at the Kiri swordsman. Kisame jumped away at the last second, retaliating with another arc of water.

This clash continued, Kuraito swinging furiously at Kisame, who never went onto a full offensive. It was cut short when Itachi ran by and signaled Kisame to follow. "Sorry to cut this short, kid. We can finish our game some other time." Kisame was a few hundred meters away before Kuraito focused on him intently.

"Hey fishstick!" Kuraito yelled after the swordsman, eliciting a glare while Kisame stopped for an instant. "Have fun fixing your hair." Kuraito waved, then called down a massive bolt of lightning, electrocuting Kisame comically and forcing Itachi to return and carry his partner away. Kuraito continued to wave until the pair was out of sight, then focused on Naruto's massive chakra signature, using it as a beacon to phase back to his friend.

Kuraito reappeared next to Naruto, only to have to dodge someone's foot. Kuraito moved out of the way, only to watch Gai fly through the air to nail Jiraiya in the face. Kuraito stood back up and identified the offender, only for his eyes to grow wide with joy. "Gai-sensei!" At Kuraito's exclamation, the spandex-clad jounin faced his younger pupil. "When did you get here? Why did you jump through the hole in the wall? Why is the pervert not getting up?" This last query was followed by Kuraito walking over to Jiraiya and poking him with the point of his nodachi. "Hey, pervert, you breathing?"

Jiraiya shot up as Kuraito accidentally poked him in the ribs, hitting the ceiling and standing quickly after his recovery to begin yelling at Gai, who was more or less ignoring the Sannin. Kuraito ignored both of the older ninja to check on Sasuke, who was still slumped against the wall, stuck in a genjutsu. Naruto followed suit, shaking and slapping Sasuke, attempting to wake his rival from his jutsu induced coma.

Gai walked towards the genin. "Don't bother, boys. If Sasuke is under the hold of the same genjutsu as Kakashi, then nothing will wake him up." He then focused on Kuraito. "So, young Kuraito, you made it this far, but you never tested yourself against Lee before his battle. You also made a promise to me before you became a genin, do you remember?"

Kuraito paled as he recalled the deal he'd made with Gai in exchange for starting him on the taijutsu master's training regimen. "Gai-sensei, I think we might cause some property damage… well, more property damage, if we do that here. Can it wait until we get to the gate?"

Gai gave Kuraito a thumbs up and struck his signature "Nice Guy" pose, creeping out Jiraiya, but leaving Naruto unfazed and Kuraito facepalming. Gai picked up Sasuke and slung the unconscious Uchiha over his back, then the group made their way to the gate of the town. Gai then set Sasuke down against a wall and began talking to Naruto animatedly.

"You know, Naruto, you can become even stronger if you train like Lee does." Gai said.

"How?" Naruto asked, his interest immediate, causing Kuraito to listen in on the exchange.

Gai rummaged through his bag and pulled out something that caused both Jiraiya and Kuraito to cringe. Gai was holding one of the sickening green spandex one-pieces that he and Lee wore. "If you wear this, not only will you notice a difference, you will never want to train without it!"

Kuraito stepped in at the point, stopping Naruto from taking the suit. "Gai-sensei, you and Lee are awesome taijutsu specialists. I still can't beat you in a fight, and if Lee is like you, he'd beat me if I didn't use _Kaminari Jigen_, but that thing is not going to be anywhere near Naruto." The boy's eyes were glowing dangerously, an evil aura surrounding him. "I will not be associated with the king of "kill me now" orange if he decides to wear… that." Kuraito then stepped several feet away and turned to face Gai again. "I believe we have an arrangement that I need to keep, sensei?"

Gai's eyes lit up and he dropped the spandex to follow Kuraito to the open space by the gate. "Yosh! You are right, young Kuraito! You were to show me how strong your flames of youth burned by giving me a taijutsu fist bump!" Jiraiya and Naruto sweatdropped at this, not believing that Gai was serious until both Kuraito and Gai were a good distance from the wall of the town.

The two stood in ready positions, then cranked their fists back and slammed them together. The resulting concussion caused a twelve meter crater to explode into existence. Both Jiraiya and Naruto stood there, jaws dropped until the taijutsu specialist and Kuraito then proceeded to test equal blows against one another, making the crater even bigger.

The final blow was a testament to Gai's ridiculous strength, as well as Kuraito's massive lightning control. Gai charged his chakra to its maximum without opening any of the Celestial gates, while Kuraito charged his fist with an ungodly amount of his own storm chakra. They called out their respective attacks, frightening their crowd of spectators that had formed.

"_Kami no Ken_!"

"_Gouken_!"

The crater at this point was dwarfed by the fifty meter deep crevasse left in the ground from the final strike of the taijutsu exchange. The two stood there for a minute until they lowered their fists and shook hands, their striking hands still smoking from the blow. The field around them was littered with craters ranging from ten to the final fifty meter wide radius. Gai and Kuraito walked over to Jiraiya and Naruto, who were still shocked at the level of destruction.

"You act like you haven't seen taijutsu before." Kuraito said as he walked down the road toward the group's destination. He turned around and waited while Jiraiya and Gai exchanged words about the Akatsuki. The taller blonde waited next to his friend patiently until they bade Gai farewell and watched for a short while as he carried Sasuke back to Konoha.

Jiraiya turned to the boys and seemed serious until a huge grin broke out on his face. "Now we have even more incentive to find Tsunade, so she can fix up Sasuke and that student of Gai's." The Toad Sage began walking down the road, gesturing for his students to follow him. "Now! Off to the next town!"

'_Another town__?_' Kuraito thought as they walked to their destination. '_I just hope it isn't some gambling town with women, or else we won't get anything done._'

Much to Kuraito's previous dread, the next town they arrved in was, in fact, a town with almost nothing but strip clubs, bars, gambling halls, and all other manner of things that he considered a waste of time and money. "Pervert, do you really think that this Tsunade lady is going to be in a dump like this? I thought she was a medical ninja of unparelled skill." Kuraito crossed his arms and scowled. "The only medical treatment that people would need here is for alcohol poisoning and occasional bar fights."

"Kuraito, Naruto, now is the time that I teach you of the three great vices that this world is plagued with." Jiraiya took a serious tone, catching their attention. "The vices you will be faced with are women, alcohol, and money! Tsunade has dedicated herself to the pursuit of the last and worst of the trio." Kuraito raised an eyebrow, while Naruto looked on with blatant interest. "She gambles in hopes that she'll score big, but this has led to her being labeled with her own special title. She's known as the Legendary Sucker. She always loses, no matter how good her odds are." Jiraiya grinned again, "It should be a simple process of asking after the news of a woman with unrivaled gambling debt. We'll find her in no time."

"But, ero-sennin, how are we going to find this lady?" Naruto demanded. "If she has so much debt, she won't stick around for very long."

Kuraito smacked his friend in the back of the head. "Baka, if she can change her appearance at will, then the descriptions of her won't match up anywhere." Kuraito was about to ask Jiraiya where to start looking when he noticed the sage had disappeared. "And twenty ryu says ero-sensei just ran off to a titty bar. What do you think, Naruto?" Kuraito turned to where Naruto used to be, only to realize he'd been left alone. The Eien boy stood there for a minute then muttered to himself, "Well, fuck. I'll just go look on my own then." He unsealed his nodachi and slung it over his back to have it at hand in case he ran into trouble.

Kuraito began his search at the giant gambling hall in town, almost pulverizing the clerk when the poor man tried to stop him from entering. He found out form some of the other patrons that Tsunade was rather notorious and had recently been there and ran out on a game when she lost, big time. He then wandered around town for a bit, his stomach rumbling while he searched for Naruto, knowing that the other blonde couldn't have gone very far. He bought some fried fish and was munching on it when he accidentally bumped into a very large man in a white suit. The suit now had a small stain where the fish had smacked against it.

"Gomenasai, I didn't see you there." Kuraito apologized quickly, bowing to the man and moving to leave when the same man yelled after him. "Hey, brat! Why don't you come back here and apologize properly!" Kuraito turned around and finished his fish.

"I already did. Why would I apologize twice for the same indiscretion?" Kuraito tilted his head slightly, confused. This obviously infuriated the man, who was cracking his knuckles.

"You'd better get on your knees and beg forgiveness, kid. This suit was worth more than your scrawny little hide." At this last remark, Kuraito became very irritated, and it showed on his face as the boy scowled at the man. "What, are you going to do something, shrimp?"

"For your information, sir, I am not short. I am above average height for my age, but I'm still very sensitive about my height, so if you would quit making jabs at me, I would appreciate it very much." Kuraito glared at the man coldly. "That aside, I have already apologized. I refuse to do so again, and I am also very sorry that your expensive suit, but I doubt that it's worth more than me. I would be willing to pay to have it cleaned, and we can let this dispute slide." Kuraito forced a smile. "How would that work for you?"

The man grinned smugly. "Yeah, you can pay for it with that sword on your back. I want it right now." He, unlike the other civilians in the area, failed to notice that the air had become thicker.

"I think I heard you wrong." Kuraito snapped his fingers next to his ears, trying to clear his hearing. "I could have sworn you said that you want me to surrender Kinkou to you, simply because you, like a spoiled brat, feel entitled to demand compensation for an honest mistake, when I already offered to pay with money?"

The man gestured with his hand. "That's right, and I'll forgive your attitude, but give me that sword right now. I like it, and I don't think some child should have something that nice…" He noticed that Kuraito was no longer visible.

Kuraito spoke from behind the man. "You should really try to be more polite." Kuraito's face was devoid of emotion when the man stumbled away from him. "You should also be more aware of your surroundings. I think you lost your belt." Kuraito held up the same belt, watching as the man's pants fell. "OI! _ERO-SENSEI_! NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME TO GET OUT HERE!"

Jiraiya walked out of the strip bar adjacent to the ongoing altercation. "You seemed to be handling yourself fine,_ gaki_, why drag me out here?"

Kuraito pointed at the man, who was charging at the pair. "I don't want to hurt him…" He was about to say more when he saw a swirling ball of energy form in Jiraiya's hand, which the sage thrust into the charging man's stomach.

"_**RASENGAN**_!" The attack was named, but Kuraito watched as the man began turning as if Jiraiya;s hand was an axis, only for him to be sent flying and spinning into a nearby stand. The stand was demolished and Naruto was behind Kuraito yelling excitedly about "awesome jutsu."

"_Damare_!" Kuraito smashed his fist onto the top of Naruto's head and dragged him away. Jiraiya followed, shivering in fear and muttering more about the "spawn of Tsunade" while Kuraito yelled at Naruto about disappearing without letting him know where they would meet.

Kuraito sat in a tree while Jiraiya explained the basics of the first exercise of the Rasengan to Naruto. He proceeded to nap and continued to do so while Naruto tried to pop a water balloon with spinning chakra. After a few hours of sleeping and finishing another chapter of his book, Kuraito dropped down and sat next to Jiraiya. "Hey, pervert. Would you mind showing me the completed form of that jutsu again?"

Jiraiya regarded Kuraito for a second before holding his hand out and forming the Rasengan again. "What, do you want to learn it, gaki? It's a very difficult jutsu, the pinnacle of chakra control and shape changing. You need to maintain the sphere, or else the chakra will just dissipate." Jiraiya jumped up and slammed the sphere into a tree, and Kuraito watched as it almost grinded into the wood, leaving a sizable chunk of the trunk missing. "The end result will do something like this."

Kuraito was watching the jutsu the whole time, pondering the way the energy swirled and was able to grind into a hardwood tree without much effort. "So, you want me to do the same thing as Naruto?"

"Have at it, kid. I'm going to get back to writing my book." Jiraiya turned away before he felt an evil presence behind him.

"Not your usual fare, I expect?" Kuraito asked, smiling as the plants around him died from the electrical discharge caused by his chakra output.

Jiraiya said nothing. He just stood there and shook his head slowly while Kuraito picked up a water balloon and started with the exercise. This continued in relative silence, as Naruto grunted with effort and Kuraito held his own balloon in one hand, focus painted across his face. Eventually, Kuraito's balloon began to distort and wriggle like Jiraiya's first demonstration. All three looked at the balloon in surprise when it exploded, soaking Kuraito's head.

"Fuck me…" Kuraito swore as he tried to dry himself off. "Was it supposed to do that?"

Jiraiya and Naruto just stared, disbelieving that Kuraito had already mastered the first stage of the Rasengan. "You just did, in a few hours, something that took the Fourth Hokage years, myself months, and Naruto has yet to come close to. Who taught you? Scratch that, have you ever done any sort of shape or elemental manipulation before?"

"One word," Kuraito said, deadpanning. "Stormweaver." Kuraito began to walk off. "That justu's too small scale for my taste, I prefer typhoons and dancing on the lightning." He waved back to the pair. "I'll see you at the hotel."

Kuraito woke to Jiraiya spluttering and swearing, while Naruto cheered. Apparently he'd figured out the first stage, courtesy of a cat. "What the fuck, Naruto?" Kuraito snapped as he rubbed his eyes, still tired. "The sun's barely up and you can't keep quiet for a few more hours?"

"I did it! I made the balloon pop!" Naruto demonstrated for both Kuraito and Jiraiya. He held the balloon in one hand while hitting multiple sides of it. Eventually the balloon began to contort and stretch until it popped loudly, water spreading everywhere.

"Looks like you really have got it down, _gaki_." Jiraiya said with a grin. He pulled out a red rubber ball from his pack and tossed it at Naruto. "The next step is a bit harder to master. You need to make that ball pop. It's a lot stronger than a balloon, so you'll need more power."

Kuraito grabbed a ball from the pack and looked at it for a minute. "Not really that creative with the exercises, are you, pervert?" Kuraito held the ball as he did with the balloon the day before. The ball contorted slightly before settling back to its former shape. Kuraito looked at the ball closely, then focused on it. "Storms are harder, but this requires more control." Kuraito stared at the ball hardly before it contorted more wildly before detonating with a loud bang.

Jiraiya facepalmed, staring at Kuraito. "How do you keep doing that, Kuraito? It takes Naruto an epiphany and it takes me months of practice. You just watch for a short while and pick it up instantly!" Kuraito just srugged before getting dressed, grabbing his clan scroll, and leaving for the day. As he was about to walk out the door, Jiraiya handed Kuraito another ballon, this one filled with air. "Do everything from the last two steps, but keep the balloon from popping, then do it in your other hand.

"This is a waste of time." Kuraito groaned. "The chakra factory over there," He pointed at Naruto. "Would make more use of this jutsu." He held out the scroll Jiraya had given him. "I play with storms and three sets of elemental justu, not shape manipulation. When am I ever going to use this when I can just annihilate my opponent with lightning, wind, or water jutsu?"

Jiraiya smacked Kuraito in the head before yelling at him. "Just do it!"

Kuraito glared at Jiraiya defiantly. "Make me!"

"Oh I'm so happy you said that..." Jiraiya grinned evilly, moving to grab Kuraito.

"You know that won't work." Kuraito said as he disappeared then reappeared behind Jiraiya, several feet away. "I can phase without a storm, now, pervert. That's one of the things the scroll covers later. You can try to catch me, but I want you to explain how I will use this _Rasengan_ along my own jutsu."

"Would you just do it for me? Maybe you can help Naruto, since he's so hopelessly lost that it took him a cat swatting his balloon to figure out the first stage." Jiraiya was almost begging at this point.

"Fine. But I'm doing something else with it that we can't try inside... or near a populated area. "Some side effects may include..."

"Alright, alright. I get it. You can at least demonstrate that you can do the third stage out by the trees."


	19. What's Up Grandma?

_**A.N. If anyone has seen the last two guest reviews, before I deleted them, you will all know that not only were they harsh, but lacking in anything but destructive criticism. I appreciate those few of you who have left encouraging reviews, giving me more incentive to keep writing. Despite this, I'm sad to say that as much as I enjoy writing, the flame reviews fail to make writing on FF worth it. I will say this once, if I haven't said it before: It's FAN Fiction, not "Tailor to the Masses Fiction". Authors on this site write to vent the ideas that they have for the stories that already exist. If they make an overpowered character, that's a sign that they still need to refine their writing style and characters to even the playing field, not an all clear to verbally assault them and viciously criticize their work. As to the last reviewer who said that the techniques and characters in Fan Fiction stories don't actually belong to the writers, if you don't like it, read another damn fiction and leave me to write for those who actually enjoy this story. On another note, to those who have actually read all the way through my own venting, I've decided how to deal with the OP status that Kuraito has. I'm still working out the details for the next chapter, assuming I can continue in relative peace. Though it still irks me, I don't own Naruto, it is the property of Masashi Kishimoto. And to satisfy those who still say I own nothing: Any use of the full concept of my OC, Kuraito Eien, without my express permission and additional credit in a separate rendition, is considered plagiarism. Ergo, Kuraito Eien and his original techniques are mine. Now, without further ado, and a temporary cessation of my ranting, here is the next chapter of Eien no Kuraito.**_

"Alright, alright. I get it. You can at least demonstrate that you can do the third stage out by the trees."

"Pervert. I already told you..." Kuraito began.

"No arguments, no rejections." Jiraiya snapped, crossing his arms. "Naruto, you are going to have to ask Kuraito for help, but he needs to prove to me that he's mastered the Rasengan." The sage began to walk towards the door, grabbing Kuraito by the collar of his shirt to drag him along. Kuraito, in response, deadened his weight, attempting to make the task harder for the old man.

"Whatever you say, Ero-sennin." Naruto deadpanned. "But I don't think that he wants anything to do with this project of yours." Naruto followed the two outside to the improvised training grounds.

Kuraito was unceremoniously deposited in front of a tree. He stood up, dusting himself off, grumbling incoherently and maintaining a semi-dejected expression at his situation. He dropped his weighted jacket, cracked his knuckles, and looked at Jiraiya. "You're an ass." He stated, glaring at Jiraiya. "But, if it will cause you to leave me alone..."

"It won't, but we are moving on to the next town after this. I need to know you'll be able to help your idiot friend." Jiraiya grinned evilly. "I can't wait to see exactly what you plan to do with the Rasengan later."

Kuraito stared at Jiraiya for a second, then looked to Naruto briefly. The other blonde took the signal, grabbed his bag, and grabbed Jiraiya by the wrist. Kuraito then grabbed Naruto's hand. "Hold on, pervert. Try to not lose your lunch again." Kuraito used _Kaminari Jigen_ to teleport all three of their group several miles away from the town. When they all reappeared, Jiraiya dropped to his knees, retching. "I did warn you..."

Kuraito's face was met with Jiraiya's fist as the sage launched the boy into a nearby tree. "I told you to prove that you could perform the third stage! I didn't say 'Teleport us to the middle of nowhere and make me sick again.'! And you gave no warning, you just brought us out here to some random field!"

Kuraito stretched a bit before turning to face Jiraiya. "I also told you that I had already figured out a way to make the Rasengan stronger. I would step back if I were you." Kuraito walked towards a clear portion of the field. "This is why I said we should do this far away from any populated areas. They might think that a large explosive tag went off if this does what I think it will." Kuraito held his hand out, gathering chakra and rotating it as he had done with the previous exercises. He then began forming a shell to contain the maelstrom in his hand. "This was an idea I came up with when I spotted the _Ranton_ jutsu in my family's scroll. It may have a bit of a bang." Kuraito finished forming the first Rasengan, then formed a second in his other hand. He channeled wind and water chakra into the first, then lightning and wind chakra into the second. He brought the two swirling orbs of destructive energy together, changing the blue chakra to a searingly bright white. "Naruto, never try this near home. Pervert, I told you so!" Kuraito ran at a massive tree in the middle of the field, then slammed the tri-natured Rasengan into the base. "_Ranton: Rasengan_!"

Jiraiya watched as the tree was not only destroyed, but the area five hundred meters in front of Kuraito was utterly annihilated from the blast. A gigantic orb of energy evolved into a small typhoon uprooting trees and digging at the earth below. The end result showed ground zero to be nearly a half kilometer of uprooted trees, lightning scorched earth, and overall destruction. The Sage could only stare in awe at the raw chaos that could only be described as the aftermath of a terrible storm.

"And that, Jiraiya-sensei, is why I have no use for the Rasengan." Kuraito faced his teacher, allowing Jiraiya to see Kuraito's glowing eyes, an apparent result of the activation of the Muraigan. "When in doubt, blow it up. Failing that, call down the thunder."

"You knew that jutsu already, didn't you?" Jiraiya asked, still in awe at the raw power that his student had just displayed. "I heard that the Stormweavers were capable of powerful jutsu, I didn't realize that this is what they could do..." He picked up Kuraito's scroll and looked throughout the contents, spotting another jutsu that Kuraito mentioned he'd been working on before the boy snatched the scroll out of his hands.

"Mine." Kuraito said before he smacked the Sage in the head, and walked off towards their next destination. Jiraiya and Naruto gaped at the site of Kuraito's jutsu one last time before following. Naruto leaned over to Jiraiya, whispering, "We shouldn't ever make him mad, should we, Ero-sennin?" Jiraiya could only shake his head.

The trio made their way to Tanzaku Town, which was rumored to be the last known location of Tsunade. Kuraito was playing with his knives, periodically cleaning out dirt from under his nails. Naruto was bouncing along, as usual, while Jiraiya was jotting down notes for his next book. Kuraito let the sage's perverse giggling slide since he hadn't pressed the issue of Kuraito's destructive rendition of the Rasengan. He knew that his abilities were far beyond what a genin should be capable of, but he didn't care. He was learning from a scroll written by the last Stormweaver of his family. It was filled with more A- and S-ranked jutsu than the young Eien knew what to do with.

"How are we going to try to find this lady this time, pervert?" Kuraito asked, drawing the attention of the Sannin from his writing. "You know what she looks like, but if she hears that you're in town," Kuraito crossed his arms at this point. "What's to stop her from disappearing again before we can get to her?"

"Nothing. However, she won't know we're in town." Jiraiya said with a smirk. "Tsunade isn't the only one who can dodge attention when she wants to."

Naruto spoke up at this point. "Ero-sennin, the only way you avoid attention is by hiding while you 'research' for your smut." At the word "smut", thunder rumbled overhead, clouds beginning to gather again for the first time in a few days. Kuraito had an evil aura surrounding him momentarily, which quickly disappeared. "Though, if she's related to Kuraito, we could just tie you up, drop you in the middle of the street, yell 'pervert', hide and wait."

Kuraito perked up at this idea, a sadistic glee visible in his eyes, which Jiraiya immediately dispelled. "It's not quite that easy. We can figure out how to find her when we get to Tanzaku."

The Eien boy deflated slightly before speaking again. "Who's in the mood for barbeque?"

Kuraito's idea bore fruit, as they asked several locals about what the best barbeque restaurant would be. They were directed to a location in the middle of town. As the trio walked in, Kuraito was still very irritated by an earlier occurrence.

"I still don't see why I couldn't break his hand. He'd only be in pain until it knocked him out by way of shock." Kuraito grumbled, his arms crossed.

Jiraiya rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "Most people would frown on that sort of behavior, _gaki_." He lightly swatted Naruto in the back of the head. "And that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't..."

"Jiraiya?!" A female voice called out. The trio turned to face the source of the voice, a woman with blonde hair tied into double pigtails, green eyes, and painfully oversized breasts.

Kuraito leaned over to Naruto. "A hundred Ryo says you insult her and start a fight you can't finish."

Naruto looked over to Kuraito with wide eyes. "I don't make those kind of bets with you! You can cheat!" The hyperactive blonde pointed at his friend dramatically. "You can use that freaky doujutsu of yours and make sure you put the bet in your favor!"

"Naruto!" Jiraiya snapped. "Shut up about that. Not everyone knows about where Kuraito is from." He grabbed the blonde by the ear and dragged him to the table where Tsunade appeared to be sitting. Kuraito followed silently, chuckling at his friend's situation. As the Toad Sage and his students sat down, Tsunade would not stop staring at Kuraito, who, in turn, stared right back.

This staring contest continued until Tsunade spoke directly to Kuraito. "What's your name, _gaki_?" The blonde woman overlapped her fingers, holding them up in from of her face with her elbows propped on the table.

Kuraito leaned back and put his hands behind his head. "What's it to you, Grandma?" He said sharply, giving the woman a cold stare, watching as her temper began to rise visibly. "What, don't like people pointing out your age? If you're one of the pervert's old teammates, you have to be getting up there..." Kuraito leaned his head to the left, dodging the teacup Tsunade beaned at his head.

"You have some nerve, calling me old. I'll ask again..." Tsunade's hand shot out and grabbed a now terrified Kuraito by the collar, dragging him across the table. "What. Is. Your. Name." Tsunade glared at Kuraito for several minutes as he stayed silent, trying to figure out how to escape his predicament. The idea came to him as he thought back to how he'd beaten Sakura at the Chuunin exams. He performed the necessary hand seals and slammed both of his hands into the female Sannin's lower arm. He called out his jutsu only so she could hear it. "_Ninpou: Shikei no Saikaseika_!" The glow of medical jutsu illuminated Kuraito's hands as Tsunade's arm went slack, releasing Kuraito to slip away and run outside, away from the furious woman, who started chasing after the Eien heir.

"Catch me if you can, Granny! Maybe then I'll tell you who I am!" Kuraito phased out with _Kaminari no Jigen_, reappearing on top of a large casino. He sat down, thinking he was in the clear. He laid back in the roof of the building, only to look up at the face of a very angry Tsunade, whose formerly paralyzed arm was now very much in use. "Oh, fuck..." This was the last thing Kuraito said before Tsunade grabbed Kuraito by the ear and dragged him back to the restaurant. "Hey, Sannin lady." Kuraito said as he was unceremoniously guided through the streets of Tanzaku town.

"What, _gaki_?" Tsunade snapped, glaring at the young blonde, who glared right back.

"You asked what my name was?"

"And you still haven't answered me." Tsunade was beginning to calm down slightly, now that she was having an almost civil conversation with the boy.

Kuraito reached a hand out. "I'm Kuraito Eien, son of Jikoku Eien and last of my clan. A pleasure to meet you, Lady Tsunade." Kuraito was released suddenly, faceplanting into the dirt at Tsunade's feet as she stared in disbelief at Kuraito. "I have the feeling that you're shocked because I was just polite... or something el...OH SHIT!" Tsunade's fist was dangerously close to Kuraito's face before he phased behind the Sannin in a flash of white, reappearing in a sitting position, still trying to get up. "Was it something I said?" Tsunade lunged at Kuraito before he could phase away, but, to his surprise, he was met with not her fist, but Tsunade hugging him.

"I thought the Eien clan was dead..." Tsunade said quietly, ignoring the stares from Jiraiya, Naruto, and her apprentice. "It happened the same night that Konoha was attacked by the Kyuubi, so everyone ignored the massacre of _Hi no Kuni's _greatest defense." Kuraito felt a warm moisture on his back. It took him a moment to realize that Tsunade was crying.

Kuraito returned the embrace, feeling his own eyes start to water, despite his usual control over his emotions. "Nice to meet you, Grandmother."

Needless to say, everyone watching was speechless.


	20. Why A Stormweaver Shouldn't Drink

_**A.N. Yeah, I know the last chapter probably left quite a bit to be desired, but I promise that I'll have some crack in this chapter. Question to anyone who has ideas, what do you think happens when someone who has unconscious control over the weather gets drunk (Insert evil grin here). I have a feeling that it would be very, very bad. But for our own sakes, lets hope no one actually discovers that kind of magic/jutsu or whatever it may be. No Drunken Boxing for Kuraito, though. Violation of many local and national laws... maybe, but no Drunken Boxing, I have something much more evil planned for that... I do not own Naruto, but even if I did, I'd still be writing this nonsense. Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto. I DO own Kuraito Eien, his character concept, and his original techniques. And now, on to the drunken crack!**_

Shortly after the teary introduction, Kuraito walked next to Tsunade to the nearest tavern. As they entered the establishment, Kuraito was overwhelmed by the stench of cheap sake and vomit. He covered his nose and looked over to his grandmother, who acted as if the smell didn't exist, which led Kuraito to the conclusion that she was very familiar with the vice of alcohol.

"Obaa-chan, I think the smell alone in this place may kill me. How do you stand it?" Kuraito groaned, still covering his face. He then noticed the subtle glow of medical chakra on Tsunade's nose. He narrowed his eyes and stated flatly, "That's cheating..."

Tsunade turned to face the Eien boy with an innocent smile. "I have no idea what you're talking about, gaki. Now," She held out a hand, giving a "gimme" gesture. "Pay up, I have no money and you're too young to drink."

Kuraito walked past his grandmother and approached the bar. "Oi, ojii-san." He called out to the barkeep, who glared at the boy for a second before he saw the hitai-ate across the boy's chest, still holding his katana. "How much for a bottle of your strongest?"

The older man laughed shortly before staring Kuraito in the eyes. "I don't think you're old enough to drink yet, kid. But since you asked... twenty thousand." Kuraito didn't even blink before slapping the necessary bills down for two bottles.

"Give 'em to her." Kuraito pointed his thumb over his shoulder to a still flabbergasted Tsunade. Before he walked off, he was tapped on the shoulder by the man. "Eh?"

"Do I look like a delivery service? Give the bottles to her yourself." The barkeep grinned before whispering. "The one on my left is a bit stronger. I put some extra ingredients during the brewing." Kuraito nodded before grabbing both bottles, walking off, and handing the weaker one to his grandmother.

"Enjoy, obaa-chan." He said before popping the cork out of the top of his own bottle. He sniffed the contents, which smelled slightly sweet and made his nose tingle. "Oi! What is this stuff? It doesn't smell like sake." He called to the barkeep.

"It's called soju!" The old man yelled back. "You'll like it!"

Kuraito did, in fact, like the drink. So much that he'd already gone through a quarter of the bottle and was stumbling down one of the streets to a gambling hall with his grandmother. The were laughing and borderline yelling in their drunken stupor as the entered the building, wandering toward the dice games. At this point, Kuraito managed to be silent enough to whisper some very useful information to Tsunade.

"Eventhough IthinkI'm too druuunk to phashe, my Muraigan shtill sheems to be workin'." Kuraito slurred, letting his eyes glow a bit before he was startled by a loud crack of thunder outside. "Doeshn't matter how badyer luck ish, granny." He pointed at himself, stumbling a bit. "I can sheee da future."

Tsunade grinned mischeviously. "Have you ever used your little trick for gambling, _gaki_?"

"Nah," Kuraito said as he took another swig from his bottle. "Naru-baka got wise afterI ushed it to shee da anshers on a tesht back in Academy." Kuraito seemed slightly dejected at this point. "And ojii-san wouldn't lemme use it to make betsh during da examsh."

Tsunade had been entertained by her grandson's drunk antic for a short while, but the slurring of his speech was beginning to wear on her, so she applied a medical jutsu to his head, allowing the Eien's speech center to allow him to speak normally again, but not detracting from his lack of motor coordination. "That should make speaking easier for you."

"Eh, what do you mean? I've been talking normal this whole time?" Kuraito said, a slight slur still present, but not to the point where it inhibited his communication. "Now are we gonna take these idiots for all of their money or not?" Kuraito started walking towards the dice tables, only to be halted by one of the men at the entrance to that particular section.

"Sorry, kid. You're a bit too young to go back here." The bouncer said.

Tsunade came up behind Kuraito. "The _gak_i_'s _with me. I'm showing him how good his grandma is at what she does. I'll make sure he doesn't cause any trouble."

Fortunately, Kuraito had hidden his headband after the pair left the bar, so the drunken grin he gave seemed to be nothing more than childish innocence to the bouncer, who sighed as he relented. "Fine, but he needs to stay with you. You got that kid?"

"Not a problem, boss!" Kuraito said in a cheerful voice. "I'll try to keep Granny out of trouble, too, if that helps at all."

The bouncer shook his head ruefully. "Have fun with that, kid." As Kuraito passed him, however, the guard almost thought he saw the hilt of a sword visible on the boy's back, but passed it off as a souvenir he probably picked up at one of the stores in Tanzaku.

Kuraito had an evil glint in his eyes as he watched the dice games, becoming used to calling the positions of the dice. Whenever he thought he had a system, though, he spotted one of the dealers flipping dice from his sleeve and made a mental note to avoid that particular table. Tsunade was about to go to the rigged station when Kuraito grabbed her by the sleeve to catch her attention. When the med-nin looked at him, the Eien shook his head discreetly and pointed to one of the clean tables. Tsunade nodded her assent and the pair approached the table.

"I'd like to buy in." Tsunade said while Kuraito slipped her a small pouch with the sufficient funds inside.

The dice dealer looked at Kuraito, then to Tsunade before speaking. "Is he with you?"

Tsunade nodded. "The guard made sure we both knew he was to stay with me back here. Right, **nephew**?" She put a slight emphasis on the designation to let Kuraito know she didn't want anyone to know her age, which he promptly ignored.

"I'm not your nephew, Granny... Are you going senile this young? I thought ero-sensei was kidding about aging, but damn!" This earned what was a light tap for Tsunade but turned into a full force head smack. "OW!" It really didn't damage Kuraito at all, but he had a role to fulfill.

"You should know better than to say bad things about your obaa-chan or her former teammates, _gaki_." Tsunade said sweetly, belying the vengeful fire behind her eyes. She pulled out the pouch he'd slipped and laid it on the table and turned her attention back to the dealer, who was staring on in wonder at the interaction between the two. "Don't mind his manners, he gets it from his sensei. Now, I believe this should cover the minimum?"

The dealer nodded silently, taking the money. "I guess he's just excited to be in a new place, right? How about this, I'll let him make a few calls for small bets, just for fun, yeah?"

At this point, Kuraito and Tsunade were cheering inside at how their plan had worked, but on the outside Tsunade was trying to seem like a responsible grandparent. "I don't know..."

"Aw, come on, obaa-chan! You always tell me how fun this game is, can I try it, please?" Kuraito said in the most pleading voice he could manage. '_I am one evil son of a bitch..._'

The man before the two started shaking the dice, and slammed the cup down. "Place your bet, kid!"

Thus began the disgustingly massive abuse of Kuraito's ablity to see the future.

At the end of the first hour, the dealer was crying internally at how much he'd lost to the blonde boy. He made every three calls right, then the dealer's pride took hold, allowing Kuraito to clean him out. Yes, occasionally, the boy would miss a call and be reasonably upset at the occurrence, but in the time since he and his grandmother had sat down, the pair had managed to quadruple their previous funds. Security was called when it seemed like the dice had somehow been loaded, but it appeared the kid was just that good.

The child stood up and stretched before speaking, "Alright, ojii-san, I think I should probably get to bed. Granny might get upset if I don't wake up in time for training." The boy scooped up the tiles and poked his grandmother on the shoulder to get her attention.

"Eh?" The woman turned to face the boy and her eyes widened at the sheer amount of money they had won. She then grinned widely. "I need to take you along more often, _gaki_! Seems you're a major good luck charm." She stood and cracked her back before taking the tiles and turning the boy to face the dealer. "Now, thank the nice man for letting you play."

The blonde kid grinned happily before bowing to the dealer. "Thanks for letting me play, dealer-san. It was really fun! Maybe I can come back when I'm old enough to come here without obaa-chan?"

The dealer gulped nervously before realizing the child must have had extremely good beginner's luck. He smiled back, stood, and returned the bow. "I think you would probably enjoy this more in a few years, as well. But please, if you do come back, let it be for conversation only, alright?"

The child nodded happily before walking off behind his grandmother.

'_How will I ever get all of that money back?_' The dealer thought, crying to himself.

As soon as Tsunade had cashed in the tiles and the pair had left, Kuraito's demeanor switched back to shinobi mode. "Alright, grandma, gimme my half of the winnings. I have weapons to buy when we get back to Konoha."

One of the things Tsunade had learned about her grandson in the few hours she had spent with him was that he had storage scrolls in his back pouches, which held so many shuriken, explosive tags, kunai, and all manner of other ninja weapons, that he could open a shop on his own. That wasn't including the thousands of spares he claimed to have stored in the apartment he shared with Naruto. Based on this, the medical Sannin concluded that "weapons" translated to simply mean "indeterminate articles of food, clothing, tools, and books", which meant that Kuraito had saved up a rather large sum of money already.

"No, I think I'll keep it for myself." This was mistake number one. A trait of the Eien clan, which Kuraito inherited, was a sense of entitlement to money that had been earned through either hard work or one's own ingenuity. It was, in fact, the use of his Muraigan which had resulted in the millions of ryo that Tsunade was now holding.

"Excuse me?" Kuraito asked. His eyes began to glow slightly, and a storm started forming overhead, which Tsunade ignored.

She responded promptly. "You're not old enough to gamble, and you shouldn't have abused your powers like that." Tsunade started to put the money into a fold of her shirt.

Mistake number two. Theft is something that Kuraito himself absolutely detests as an individual, as he and Naruto had been victim of the crime more than once. This, coupled with his hereditary sense of having earned the winnings from that gambling hall, caused his temper to spike. Lightning started arcing in the clouds. Things were not looking good for Tanzaku or it's central district in paricular.

"Tsunade-obaa-chan, you have ten seconds to give me my half of the winnings." It should be noted that at this point, Kuraito was still very much drunk. Despite this, his Stormweaver powers were slightly magnified by the looseness of his control over his emotions. Had Tsunade been aware of this aspect of his kekkai genkai, she would have been a bit more careful in her prodding of the thirteen-year-old's self-control.

"Or what?" Tsunade, at this point, finally noticed her grandson's glowing eyes and the roiling storm overhead. The rain from said storm began to fall lightly, but eventually upgraded into a full downpour. "Oh... that... damn." She said quietly, handing over the pouch.

Kuraito experienced a full emotional one-eighty, becoming cheerfully drunk again, and allowing the storm overhead to dissipate to a light sprinkling rain. He counted out exactly half of the pouch's contents, deposited it into a scroll, and handed the considerably lighter purse back to his grandmother. At this point, a hidden aspect of the Eien clan's reaction to alcohol took hold.

An explanation would be best at this point. Normal drunk phases include giddiness, loss of refined motor control, and eventual slurred speech. Aftereffects usually include headache, drowsiness, and all other symptoms associated with hangovers. The Eien prided themselves in consuming virtually no alcohol due to their extra stage.

Overdrive.

Every member of the clan has a natural lightning affinity, even if they never become shinobi. As a result, they have a much higher level of potential for uncontrolled hyperactivity. Kuraito, however, was a Stormweaver. This meant that he had a hurricane as a power source instead of just the lightning. One could imagine this would be VERY bad. One would be right.

Kuraito's chakra exploded into maximum output, bringing the storm back in full force, producing gale force winds, hail, heavy rain, and an unbelievable amount of lightning. The expression "bouncing off the walls" is usually just a metaphor. But for someone who has a storm as a battery, this can become quite literal. And a hyperactive Kuraito was something that should have never been released upon the world. But it was, and he was in overdrive, and Tsunade was about to find a reason to ban anyone from ever giving her grandson alcohol ever again.

_**A.N. I do feel the need to let everyone know that I just chugged a NoS, so the following crack is an output for the energy that is otherwise causing my whole body to shake.**_

Kuraito disappeared in a bright flash of white light and proceeded to going on a pranking rampage through all of Tanzaku town. The speed he was exhibiting would never be duplicated again unless he were to drink again. He managed to phase in and out of _Kaminari Jigen_ so many times, it looked like the whole city had been turned into a giant Tesla coil. He continued to deface and rearrange parts of the city's landscape, all while cackling gleefully like a bat out of hell. After less than twenty minutes, the citizens and patrons of the Land of Fire's Sin City were so disheveled and disoriented that they could only blink before they were struck again and again until, an additional ten minutes later, Kuraito reappeared before his grandmother and simply said two words:

"Eien, out." At which point the heir to a clan of prophets and masters of storms passed out, beyond exhausted. His snores were probably the equivalent of a symphony from the heavens to the nearby people, but no one ever figured out that the mass mayhem was caused by a single thirteen-year-old boy with way too much alcohol in his system.

Tsunade walked over to the boy, picked him up, and threw him ever her shoulder, carrying him back to the restaurant where they had left Shizune, Jiraiya, and Naruto. The Sannin sighed ruefully as she realized that her progeny was an engine of mayhem and insanity after only a few drinks. As she walked, she considered the offer that she had been given by her other former teammate, Orochimaru. He told her a wild story of how he could now supposedly bring the long dead back to life and had even killed the Third Hokage. However, he described a child matching Kuraito's description and how the boy had tried to annihilate the Snake Sannin after he'd brought the boy's father back from the dead.

She weighed the options and realized that if she helped that monster of a man, she would not only disappoint her lost loved ones, but also the blonde child she was currently carrying over her shoulder. From what she heard, Kuraito had done everything he could to kill Orochimaru, but couldn't realize that the snake freak would survive. At that point, she decided that she would not only reject the offer to repair Orochimaru's body in exchange for her lover and little brother being defiled in resurrection, but she would do everything in her power to kill the third Sannin herself.

"I hope you can hear some of this, _gaki_. I'm going to meet with Orochimaru in a week, he's going to try to trick me, and I'm going to end him to avenge the Old Man. That snake will die tomorrow, along with his apprentice." Tsunade looked grim as she began to plan her actions for the next day. Now, where could she get a drug to keep Jiraiya down until she was done with their old teammate...?

_**A.N. This was done over the course of several drunk evenings and one final night of imbibing in dangerously over-caffeinated carbonated drinks. I hope the slight burst of crack was entertaining so at least a few of those who read this. I know I had fun writing it. See y'all next time! **_


End file.
